Tour—Emotional Oranges brings Pulp Fiction to the 9:30 Club
Photo credit: Dayja Johnson/Parklife DC
Emotional Oranges brought the house down at the 9:30 club in early March, giving the East Coast some of that warm West Coast Love. DC continues to be a popular market for the duo, considering they sold out the same venue on the previous tour. I would be a doing you all a disservice to call this show incredible; this tour stop was down-right memorable.
The show opens up with a set from Aáyanna, an incredible rising talent out of Atlanta. Aáyanna is, without a doubt, building on the new wave of R&B artists, with deep melodic sounds reminiscent of Jhené Aiko, Summer Walker and Syd. She performed original records and snuck in an acapella version of The Internet’s “Special Affair”. What I loved most was her eagerness to meet her fans at the merch table following the show, a lost art in live performances. After a solid opening act, Emotional Oranges hit the stage with “Personal”, a classic from their debut project. Their set continued with consecutive fan favorites and hilarious video interludes sprinkled in from other label mates, including Demont and Rory. V also serenaded the crowd with an acapella version of Kevin Little’s “Turn Me On”. Small but worth noting that both members have mastered the art of co-leading a performance. Neither member attempted to dominate the stage over the other, even in the small moments of choreography. Before the show closed out, one of the tour staff members pulled my wife and I backstage, along with 4 other fans, to learn the choreography to “Slide All Night”, a line dance with a bit of West Coast flavor on it. Shortly after our lesson, we hit the stage to show off what we learned, making a fool of ourselves but in good fun. Though it was far from expected, dancing on stage with one of my favorite R&B groups was more than a dream. An experience that I’m still unpacking as I type this review. I am eternally grateful to their team.
Image courtesy of Emotional Oranges/Coachella 2022
In their former careers, A worked as an audio engineer for Drake, and V worked as a vocal coach for Adele. Shortly after meeting, the duo began releasing music on Soundcloud as the group we’ve come to love, Emotional Oranges. They released their first single “Motion” in 2018 and their debut album, The Juice: Vol 1, the following year. Since the success of Vol 1, they’ve headlined four sold out world tours and have performed in numerous festival line ups. I believe it’s more than safe to say they’ve skyrocketed from cult following to massive fanbase in a matter of five years.