Preface: This review will be biased, this was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
By Jules Champion
The Felton Music hall on Friday, November 4th was electric, nervous and excited to see the young duo of DOMi and JD Beck perform for the first time at Felton Music Hall; that was, before 5 minutes of fart noises played across the speaker system. DOMi and JD Beck, despite working with artists like Thundercat, Anderson .Paak, and Herbie Handcock, refused to get bogged down into the seriousness of their music.
As soon as they stepped on stage they rocked, opening with their song ‘WHATUP’ from their new 2022 album NOT TiGHT. DOMi played their insane combination of 2 keyboards of different pitches, combined with foot pedals to play bass lines while JD Beck played the drums. In between their songs, the duo moved away from their focus and extreme improvisation to instantly cracking jokes, making fun of each other, themselves, the audience, and telling stories about the anxiety of producing Herbie Hancock or dealing with fans mad at the pre-show fart noises.
Left: DOMi’s keyboard set up with upper keyboard, lower keyboard, and foot pedals.
For the music itself, it was amazing. The duo who originally got big on YouTube around 2018 played all of their hits, not just from their album, but from their covers of songs by MF DOOM, Slum Village, Wayne Shorter, and Jaco Pastorius. One of the highlights of the concert was seeing DOMi and JD Beck perform a tribute to MF DOOM, effortlessly transitioning from ‘Figaro’ to ‘All Caps’ to ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ to ‘Raid’ to ‘Meat Grinder’ to ‘Accordion’ in the span of 8 minutes. Along with this, the duo played almost every song off of their new album, opting to sing the parts of featured artists like Mac Demarco and Herbie Hancock. To play the drums and sing, or play the keys and sing, I cannot even begin to understand how they did it.
The music was just as charismatic as the duo themselves and captivated the high age range audience that is present at any all-ages Felton Music Hall show. One minute the keys were running the show and you couldn’t look away before your head would snap and you’d see JD Beck freestyling on the drums.
Technical difficulties apparently affected the performance. I say apparently as JD Beck repeatedly mentioned breaking their drums, not being able to hear themselves play, but as an audience member I was entranced. No matter the technical difficulties, DOMi and JD Beck gave an amazing performance at one of the first concerts that made me laugh, and cry, from musical joy.