Introduction

On October 23rd, I attended a virtual concert held by Japanese R&B Singer George “Joji” Miller. The concert, titled The Extravaganza, was an hour long pre-recorded virtual broadcast that was in celebration of the release of his recent sophomore album Nectar, which released on September 25th. The show was performed in this box like set which had visualizers in the walls and floors. The main performer was primarily Joji without a lot of supporting performers on the stage. He performed 19 songs, a majority being from the album. The tracklist was:

  1. Sanctuary
  2. Attention
  3. Mr. Hollywood
  4. Ew
  5. Demons
  6. Upgrade
  7. Yeah Right
  8. Your Man
  9. Test Drive (Intermission)
  10. Gimme Love (Exclusive Live Edition)
  11. Daylight
  12. Pretty Boy
  13. I Don’t Wanna Waste Your Time
  14. Window
  15. Tick Tock
  16. Can’t Get Over You
  17. Run
  18. Like You Do
  19. Slow Dancing in the Dark

Description of Music

The overall texture of the music performed felt much more organic than the album, most especially noticeable in the vocals of Joji. Like many other pop artists these days, his vocals are heavily produced on tracks released online, so hearing his voice unedited felt more natural. The concert itself was continuous yet was divided into multiple chapters, with no hard segways into one tune to another, instead having mini ~20 second interludes between each song. A lot of the songs were in a lower key than the original songs so that Joji could sing more at ease. Composition wise, however, it wasn’t really groundbreaking, as Joji sticks to the safe side with all the songs sticking with incredibly basic pop song structures.

 

Reaction of the Show

Visually, this concert was something I have never seen before, it was an absolutely surreal experience. The underlying “theme” of the concert was being in a circus, as there were many interludes between songs that featured a talent show with a magician and an opera singer, a reoccuring update on an ice sculpture being made on set, and bizarre costumes that Joji wore throughout the show. Joji has been known to heavily rely on visuals to expand his universe within his music, and this show pushed his creativity to the limit. As bizarre as some of the visuals were, such as him dressing up as a Minion from Despicable Me for Tick Tock, or singing Sanctuary in a dunk tank while a professional baseball pitcher tries to hit the target to drop him, it felt like this perfectly captured how the music was meant to be expressed. As mentioned above in the description, the music wasn’t extraordinary. However, there were highlights in some of the songs, especially in the slower and more sombre songs such as Ew, Like You Do, and Slow Dancing in the Dark, where the production and vocal performance truly shined. All 19 songs had a stellar performance by him, accompanied by great sound design and texture. The overall dynamic of the show and my mood also changed gradually as it went on. The start felt very humorous and lighthearted, as the visuals and costumes on the set were incredibly wacky. But as the concert progressed, it slowly morphed into a genuine performance by Joji, packed in with emotion, and the mood shifted into a more melancholic feeling. This concert also was probably the most varied one I’ve ever witnessed. Every single song felt like a wild card, not knowing what was coming next. I do wish that the show was longer than an hour, as it felt like there could’ve been so much more to showcase, but it was still a very entertaining hour.

 

Conclusion

This was such an interesting and amazing experience that I’ll likely not see again in the near future. As the Covid-19 Pandemic pretty much put live shows on standby, artists like Joji needed to think of something to replace those concerts but still showcase their own universe of creativity, and The Extravaganza goes above and beyond to make it happen, as some of these visuals and editing to the show would be virtually impossible to recreate on a live stage. The Extravaganza was not necessarily perfect in a musical sense, but it still does the job of showcasing what Joji wants to showcase from his own universe, as the theatrical aspect that supported the music kept me intrigued on where it was going next.