Daniel Caesar - Superpowers Tour Review: Madison Square Garden.

The Daniel Caesar and Omar Apollo at Madison Square Garden is in the top three concerts I've been to in 2023. 

For context, I am a huge Daniel Caesar fan. I've been listening to him since 2016, when all he had out was Pilgrim's Paradise – EP and about three other singles. 

Won't Live Here was on a vicious repeat when I was 16, going through growing pains. 

Seeing Daniel's career climb from a lowkey melodic genius to a household name and selling out MSG warms my heart. I love to see my favorite artists making money. 

Montel Fish was the opener for the concert, which was such a perfect addition to Omar and Daniel's style and genre of music. Sometimes, opening artists can be a bit random or just placed in for scheduling purposes, but this was the dream team right here. 

Unfortunately, I didn't see his entire set, but I caught the last song of "Fall in Love with You." It's a fan favorite, so it's no surprise he ended on it, but if you were at the concert for his set, can you tell me if he sang "Hotel?"  

I was kind of disappointed by the merchandise for this tour. It was underwhelming for me; however, I saw the creative direction the team attempted to achieve, like this sarcastic, graphic streetwear merch, but I wanted to be more thrilled. I got the white Superpowers T-shirt, the best design from the collection. 

Next, Omar Apollo came out and performed a complete set. I'll admit I got put on to Omar through TikTok, but I ain't mad at it because he is very talented. Whoever his costume designer is did a fantastic job with his shiny red suit. 

I'm unfamiliar with most of Omar Apollo's music, so I didn't keep track of his setlist. Still, I tapped in after this concert because he has such good energy on stage, and his style and dance moves remind me a lot of Harry Styles, while his music reminds me of a mix of Cuco and James Blake. 

After Omar Apollo's last song, the stage was reset for Daniel Caesar's performance. The stage set up was this ominous display with fog and this long curtain hanging from the set's ceiling covering four sides of the platform that Daniel was standing on. 

He started with "Ocho Rios," "Let Me Go," and "Disillusioned." I was nervous leading up to the concert because two nights before his appearance at MSG, Daniel had canceled his show in Washington, DC, because he was sick. 

 I knew the likelihood that he would cancel this concert was low because it's freaking Madison Square Garden, but I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to sing at full capacity if he was still recovering. 

But after hearing his angelic voice on the first three songs, I knew this would be an incredible concert. Next was my favorite song from the album, "Toronto 2014," and he even brought out Mustafa. I was geeked! What a pleasant surprise. If you have yet to see the music video for this song, I highly recommend it. It's not shot in Canada, despite the song's title. They shot it in Sudan, where there's currently an ongoing power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces that has created a humanitarian problem for the citizens of Sudan. 

I have a lot of respect for Daniel, Mustafa, and their creative team for this MV and their diligence in spreading light on the atrocities happening around the world. They linked resources in the video's bio to help send aid to Sudan, but the awareness from the video is enlightening. It was very tasteful and displayed the beautiful aspects of Sudanese culture rather than the egregious acts taking place right now. 

After "Toronto 2014", he sang "Violet," which got me hyped because I wasn't sure if he would sing his old stuff now that he has three studio albums. This wasn't the only song he sang that was pre-Freudian. 

"Do You Like Me?", "Entropy" and "Japanese Denim" followed next. "Entropy" is my second favorite song on Freudian after "Freudian." Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear him sing that. But when I tell y'all that Japanese Denim live at a sold-out Madison Square Garden with the entire crowd singing the chorus together, it will be tattooed in my brain forever. I can't express how beautiful this experience was. 

After the song ended, there was about a two-minute pause of Daniel just standing there with his guitar, and something in my bones told me he was going to do some wild shit like sing "Get You" or "Peaches." He hit that first chord on the guitar, and I knew immediately what fucking time it was, but what I wasn't prepared for was H.E.R casually walking out onto the stage while harmonizing the intro of "Best Part." 

I screamed so fucking loud in my video; I'm so grateful to have my raw reaction to this monumental collab. This takes the cake as the highlight of the concert without a doubt. 

After H.E.R left the stage, he sang "Please Do Not Lean", "Pain is Inevitable," and "Shot My Baby". I only heard snippets of "Please Do Not Lean" prior to this, but after the concert, it was on repeat. 

Daniel sang "Superpowers," "Creep" (Radiohead cover), and "Get You" next. "Superpowers" is also one of my favorites from Never Enough. I hoped he would have sung "Sparks" by Coldplay for his cover song at this concert, but I was not mad at all for "Creep"; tears were shed. 

When he got to "Get You," he sang it in a lower octave, and I had a feeling that would happen considering the key of this song; this was the end of the concert, with tired vocals, and he was coming off of a cold. The girls sitting next to me at the concert pointed that out, too, so the crowd understood the circumstances.                                                                                                                      

His last song on stage was "Always," afterward, Daniel's camera crew followed him backstage to his dressing room, where he sat down and sang "Streetcar" acapella. 

I cried real tears when he sang "Streetcar" because that's not only my favorite song by Daniel Caesar but also one of the first songs I heard of his. It's such a beautiful, encouraging song about self-discovery and not knowing your way, and listening to it live was the cherry on top of the performance. 

If you're getting into Daniel Caesar, I have a playlist of my favorite tracks by him on the playlist tab of The Playback website.