Omar Apollo performed at the Fox Theater in Oakland on November 3. The show was completely sold out–with tickets reselling for nearly five times their original price. The audience was composed of many college-aged students, as was clear by the thousands of phones held up in the air for videos.

Omar’s entrance onto the stage kicked off the show with a strong start. He expressively waved his arms and jumped in his all-leather outfit. Under bright lights, Omar’s leather outfit was illuminated beautifully.

While I spent the first few songs up in thephoto pit, directly in front of the speakers, my ears rang significantly more from the screams of audience members in the general admission area. The audience was ecstatic.

Despite the huge audience, Omar did a great job of engaging audience members. In particular, being Mexican-American himself, he called out for Mexican audience members to dedicate a few of his songs sung in Spanish to them. When Omar began the first few chords of these songs, audience members screamed and cried out of excitement.

My personal favorite performance in Omar Apollo’s set was “Kamikaze.” I particularly enjoyed the graphics and light design of this song. In addition, “Kamikaze” lifted the energy in the venue after a few slower and sadder songs.

 

Omar Apollo ended his set playing his hit song–which grew famous on TikTok– “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).” The light design for the song was remarkable. The lights had purple and blue tones, as well as flashes of red and orange tones during the chorus. The whole audience swayed back and forth together as they sang along. A remarkable moment from the show was when Omar (and the entire audience) sang the lyrics “you know you really made me hate myself / had to stop before I break myself / should’ve broke it off to date myself / you didn’t deserve me at all, at all, at all.” The whole audience sang along with even more emotion than Omar himself. While the sold out Fox Theater did feel hectic, this moment during “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All)” brought together the entire audience as one.

 

Article and photos by Eliza Scheer

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