SZA and Omar Apollo at TD Garden
Words & Images by Bella Perreira ‘24
In a turn of events that I assumed were impossible, WZLY received two review tickets to see Omar Apollo and SZA perform in Boston on February 28th. These two are huge names, and were each my top Spotify artists in 2021 and 2022, so getting to cover this show was a dream of mine.
SZA has been in the R&B game for a while now; her first two EPs were released independently before joining Top Dawg Entertainment and putting out her first album, Z, in 2014. She worked with various artists in songwriting and vocal capacities during her early days, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Isaiah Rashad, and Schoolboy Q, which garnered enough hype for her debut studio album, Ctrl, to become a major success. Besides a couple of singles and features, SZA fans have been waiting for new music since Ctrl dropped in 2017, so it was no surprise that SOS was a massive hit upon its release in December 2022—especially with features from heavy hitters like Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver. As of March 2023, SOS stayed at #1 on the Billboard 200 for ten non-consecutive weeks and broke multiple other records, evoking memories of Ctrl’s historic achievement as the second-longest charting R&B album by a female artist (topped only by Rihanna).
Upon entering the TD Garden, we were delighted to find that we’d been seated in the front row of a lodge only a few sections away from the stage. Doors opened an hour later than planned (possibly because of weather?), so Omar Apollo’s set was tragically cut in half, but he still absolutely killed it. He walked out on stage in an outfit that radiated strong boyband vibes, and opened the night with “Useless,” an upbeat pop song with fun vocal effects that were elevated by the crowd’s electric energy.
Next up was “Endlessly,” which has an easygoing beat and lyrics that the whole stadium seemed to know, followed by his newest release, “3 Boys,” a slower song about Apollo’s experiences with the complexities of non-monogamy. He continued the more emotional vibe with “Petrified,” then sang the R&B hit “Kamikaze,” both accompanied by colorful psychedelic visuals projected behind the singer. Apollo closed his performance with, of course, “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All)”; the slow, yearning vocals on this song haven’t stopped it from completely blowing up in recent months, especially after its appearance on his Tiny Desk Concert with NPR in September 2022. While the set wasn’t especially high energy (mostly due to cutting upbeat songs like “Killing Me,” “Tamagotchi,” and “Go Away” at the last minute), Apollo’s crooning and obvious passion kept the audience captivated nonetheless. As a queer Latine myself, his effort to incorporate elements of traditional Mexican music into lyrics about queer love has never failed to move me.
We all knew who was up next, but I don’t know if anyone in that stadium was prepared for the absolute performance we were about to witness. SZA opened the show with “PSA,” a song that was used as a teaser for SOS in November but only made it to the digital-exclusive edition of the album. Blue waves rolled on the massive screen, which eventually lifted itself to reveal SZA sitting atop a diving board high above the stage; the album cover was thus brought to life in the first of many, many theatrical stage designs themed around shipwrecks and being lost at sea. She ended the song by diving into the ‘sea’ below her, and eventually ascended on a life-sized steamship, which became the main setting throughout most of the show, to begin “Seek and Destroy.” In between cuts of the ship’s boiler room, industrial visuals, and a behind-the-scenes video of SZA’s costume change during “Smoking on My Ex Pack,” the sky behind the docked steamship cycled through radiant sunset colors before landing on a starry night sky—a fitting backdrop for her performance of “All the Stars.”
SZA was not messing around when she planned this show. Four acts, each with their own outfit changes; nearly thirty songs, including a cover of Erykah Badu’s “Bag Lady”; changing settings of frantic submarines, stormy shipwrecks, and underwater coral reefs complete with sharks; she even spent ten minutes aboard a life raft that soared above the stadium, performing a medley of slower songs “Supermodel,” “Special,” “Nobody Gets Me,” and “Gone Girl” in a huge ruffled gown. The setlist was a great mix of selections from Ctrl and SOS, allowing for new and old fans alike to sing their hearts out. In songs with features, such as “Doves in the Wind” with Kendrick Lamar and “Love Galore” with Travis Scott, she hopped around the stage while the guest verses played over the speakers, and maintained the same high energy as if she had performed them herself. SZA and her four backup dancers also had some incredible choreography, which grew more impressive as the show progressed through each of its four acts. My only disappointment was the absence of “Go Gina” and “20 Something” from the setlist, but my other favorites like “Low,” “Broken Clocks,” “SOS,” “Notice Me,” and “Prom” were amazing enough to make up for it.
SZA brought Act IV to a close with “The Weekend,” arguably her most well-known song before SOS was released. It didn’t take long for the audience’s screams to bring her back out for an encore, accompanied by the most beautiful backdrop of the night. She was back on her iconic diving board, legs still dangling over the sea, but the horizon was now a brilliant orange. She had changed back into her fluffy gown from Act III, and as she finished the night with “Good Days,” the sky darkened into dusky purples and deep oranges that illuminated the yellow dress.
Out of the many concerts I’ve been to in my lifetime, this one will remain at the top for quite some time. I could honestly watch Omar Apollo and SZA jam for five minutes in a shitty basement and still be psyched, so their captivating performances and insane set design made the experience all the more life-changing.
