[ATTENDED: August 22, 2021] Wilco / Sleater-Kinney / NNAMDÏ [rescheduled from August 23, 2020]
NNAMDÏ is Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, an American multi-instrumentalist born in California to Nigerian immigrants now based in Chicago.
I had not heard of him, but I was really intrigued to see what his set would be like. I can honestly say it was nothing like I expected.
Earlier in the tour NNAMDÏ fell off a scooter or skateboard and broke his wrist. He missed a few dates and then was back on the tour. NNAMDÏ plays guitar but he had to get a replacement for the tour. He told us the replacement learned all of his parts in like a day. And the parts were all over the place. Because NNAMDÏ’s music is about as unclassifiable as Thundercat’s.
I felt like he was digging into prog-rock territory and yet I guess it would be more accurately labelled as jazz with rapid time changes, incredibly fast parts and wicked jamming. And yet the roots of most of his songs were a kind of pop/R&B vibe.
His band was incredible. He introduced them all but I didn’t catch their names. His drummer was intense. He played some amazing wild fills and also showed real restraint as well. His bassist had a wonderful deep low end with a 5-string bass that looked really heavy. There were two guitarists, the guy on my left played some amazing leads (and jumped off the amplifier). He was perfectly accented buy the newer guitarist. And when the band jammed, which they did a few times, NNAMDÏ crouched down out of the way to let them go.
He played six or seven songs all from his newest album Brat and he was an entertaining front man. I rather enjoyed that he carried his fanny pack/backpack on him during the set–don’t leave your stuff out of sight!
The first song was the most mellow of the bunch but with fascinatingly vulgar lyrics
he said son you’ll be okay and I yelled “Fuck you get out of my face” then I apologized like immediately and I broke down again.
It was really impressive the way he could jump from deep voice to falsetto like in Wasted.
Perfect in My Mind had a lengthy jam with wild guitars and killer drums. He even threw in some autotune to add to his vocal repertoire.
The lyrics to “It’s OK” were simple but heartfelt:
There’s no need to pretend
You’re okay if you’re not
It’s okay if you’re not okay
He encouraged us to sing along and I think a few people did.
The rest of the set was similarly unpredictable. As with a lot of musicians like this, I found that I enjoyed his live set a lot more than the recorded versions (I listened when I got home). There’s something a bit more wild and exciting live that isn’t captured on record. And yet I believe he recorded the whole album by himself (or at least I know he plays all different instruments) and his talent is undeniable.
- [unknown]
- Wasted
- Perfect in My Mind
- It’s OK
- Glass Casket
- ART SCHOOL CRUSH
- Flowers to My Demons
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