Wiz Kid brings Lagos to Boston! : Made In Lagos tour review

International Superstar and one of Afrobeats biggest stars, Wizkid, kickoff his Made In Lagos tour here at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, MA.

When you first walk into the Orpheum, you can smell the age of the building, and then when you get to your seat, you see the ceiling art dripped with sculpted marble. The venue has no standing sections! It’s an intimate 2700 seat performance venue on two levels with tight aisle seating. Not your typical venue for an artist like Wizkid because his music makes you get up and dance.

And this show was completely sold out!

As I looked out to the crowd, I saw nothing but beautiful shades of brown, that without a doubt, I could say a good chunk of the African diaspora was in that building. Some dressed up in their best Saturday night clubs fits, and others had pieces inspired by their African heritage, and a few dressed in basic concerts clothes (sneakers, jeans, t-shirt, or long tee). What I am trying to say here is that the drip in this building was at astronomical levels (especially from the ladies in attendance)

When the stage lighting came on Dj Tunez (Wizkid’s tour Dj) introduced himself and then changed the energy in the room. It went from the crowd being loud from the chatter sitting in their seats to a whole club atmosphere as Dj Tunez played Afrobeats classics.

I personally never felt that type of energy from a crowd or seen everyone from the nose bleeds to the front row cutting a rug with their own best dance moves. Dj Tunez would cut the sound for a couple of seconds to hear the crowd sing these song lyrics word for word, and they kept the same energy track to track!

The vibes were at an all-time high, and Wiz Kid didn’t even touch the stage yet.

Dj Tunez said, “If your ready for Wizkid, say WE OUTSIDE,” and the crowd went crazy, responding collectively, “WE OUTSIDE!”

As Wizkid came out dripped in all red with ice glaciers diamonds around his neck with some dark shades on, I could feel the building shake as the crowd went mad! Wizkid just kept smoothly walking to the mic stand, grabbing it with two hands, then nodded to the live band to start the show.

The live band was a nice touch that felt fitting for this show in this venue; it added another element to his overall set. When he did the song “Smile,” he’d cue his drum to cut the drums so that the keyboard could have more influence as he performed. Then on the song “true love” towards the end, WizKid would cut the whole band off and let his vocals take over.

The energized crowd high key took over the show when Wizkid started to play some of his older songs. There was a good section of the crowd during the whole set going word for word with Wiz Kid for every track.

At one point during this section of his performance, you could see Wizkid soak at the moment and say to the crowd, “You guys are amazing!”

When Essence played, you couldn’t tell me that the spirit of Tem’s wasn’t in that building. Tem’s acapella vocals played for a solid 50 seconds, and it genuinely felt like the crowd was a musical instrument as a collective.

Everyone in the build on the same frequency as the part where she says, “You Don’t need no other body,” was a memorable experience that is just indescribable. An experience you can only get at a concert where the crowd at an intimate venue is genuinely in tune with the artist’s music.

Overall I give this concert a 7.5. Wizkid’s performance isn’t going to be the thing I remember about this concert, rather just the experience of being in such a lit crowd that provided the energy that put Wizkid’s performance to the next level.