An actor\/musician whose tunes are actually good? Well, stranger things have happened.<\/p>\n
Many may know musician Djo as actor Joe Keery, who just finished up the run of megahit Netflix series \u201cStranger Things\u201d this past New Year. Keery played Steve Harrington, a fan-favorite regular in all five seasons of the show. And much like the series, Djo\u2019s music will make you nostalgic for the 1980s.<\/p>\n
As a solo musician, he\u2019s released three albums since 2019. The single \u201cEnd of Beginning,\u201d from his 2022 album \u201cDecide,\u201d had a recent resurgence on TikTok that rocketed it into the Billboard Top 10 earlier this year, and that virality clearly attracted plenty of new fans. Pittsburgh\u2019s sold-out Tuesday night show at Stage AE was the first stop of his summer headlining tour, with dates woven in between shows where he\u2019s supporting Tame Impala on their Deadbeat Tour.<\/p>\n
Opening was Australian psychedelic rock band Pond, who added their own flourishes of glam rock and pulsing energy to an already sweltering evening. The teeming crowd wrapped around the entire block waiting to enter the venue even as the openers took the stage, but the already packed Stage AE gave Pond a warm welcome and danced along to their anthemic songs and lead singer Nick Allbrook\u2019s passionate vocal acrobatics.<\/p>\n
On songs like \u201cTerrestrials,\u201d the band was having fun experimenting with catchy melodies and stadium rock sounds, even adding touches of spacey keys and growling guitars. Pond played for 45 minutes, but the time flew by in a set of blazing songs.<\/p>\n
Much like Pond, Djo mixed up a variety of genres while wearing his influences on his sleeve. Also \u2014 fitting of an actor\/musician \u2014 Keery had his own onstage theatrical sensibilities.<\/p>\n
That was clear from his set\u2019s first moments, when he kicked off \u201cAwake\u201d with dark synths, flashing red lights and murmuring vocals. But after a single whooping vocalization at the start of the bridge, the band exploded into a rowdy frenzy of guitars.<\/p>\n
The contrast between \u201cAwake\u201d and its follower, \u201cChange,\u201d was a theme that would continue through the concert. Instead of red lights and pounding rock, \u201cChange\u201d was dancey synth-pop, with Keery moving into his higher vocal register.<\/p>\n
Ten of the 12 songs from Djo\u2019s 2025 album \u201cThe Crux\u201d made it into the 16-song setlist, with one of the record\u2019s highlights, \u201cBasic Being Basic,\u201d coming next. It\u2019s a heavily \u201980s-influenced tune, with new-wave touches and Keery affecting a deeper, almost robotic voice. The crowd gleefully shouted along with their favorite lyrics.<\/p>\n
The references in his tunes didn\u2019t just stick to the decade of big hair and leg warmers, though. Upbeat song \u201cLink\u201d mixed folk influences with the sounds of 2000s and early 2010s indie rock, and highlight \u201cPotion\u201d could sit comfortably next to a lineup of Fleetwood Mac cuts. Behind him, orange and pink lights sparked as he sang, \u201cleave on the light for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hot!\u201d he yelled to the crowd. \u201cIs everybody drinking water? Keep doing it! You gotta drink it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Between the dreamy \u201cRoddy\u201d and funkier \u201cFool,\u201d he let the crowd know how much fun he was having. \u201cI love you guys! You\u2019re loud as hell. You having a good time?\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd let him know that they were, in fact, having a good time.<\/p>\n
If anyone can tell me what yacht rock song the opening keys and percussion of \u201cFigure You Out\u201d sound like, I would appreciate it, because I can\u2019t \u2026 well, figure it out. The tune starts like an \u201980s TV show theme song and builds into an epic pre-chorus.<\/p>\n
Kicking off with birdsong sound effects, \u201cCharlie\u2019s Garden\u201d filled the night air with cheerful keys and jaunty drums. It was a cheery little ditty that could immediately put a smile on your face, and even sweeter, it\u2019s about Keery\u2019s \u201cStranger Things\u201d co-star, Charlie Heaton.<\/p>\n
The pop-rock \u201cGap Tooth Smile\u201d had the crowd flying high, but \u201cDelete Ya\u201d sent us back to the era of The Cure and The Cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to play another new-ish one,\u201d he announced before the slow and gentle \u201cFly\u201d brought back his whispery vocals and poignant guitar.<\/p>\n
\u201cLight it up!\u201d he announced as a sea of phone flashlights winked on, brightening the newly dark night air.<\/p>\n
He finished off the regular set with the one-two punch of sprawling tune \u201cEgg\u201d and the familiar sounds of \u201cEnd of Beginning,\u201d his biggest hit to date. Then, he and the band left the stage before returning for a two-song encore.<\/p>\n
After the regular set, the last two selections were interesting choices. The first song was the slower \u201cChateau (Feel Alright),\u201d which might have fit in better somewhere in the middle of the earlier set. But no one could doubt the effectiveness of the feel-good tune \u201cBack on You\u201d as a closer, with its reverberating bassline, hopping beat and warm-and-fuzzy lyrics. Keery swayed and swiveled around the stage as the crowd cheered him on, everyone having the time of their lives both on- and off-stage.<\/p>\n
Sure, there were plenty of \u201cStranger Things\u201d references yelled out by the crowd and worn on T-shirts by spectators, but the excited fans proved that multi-talented performer Djo is more than a one-hit wonder, onscreen or behind the microphone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An actor\/musician whose tunes are actually good? Well, stranger things have happened. Many may know musician Djo as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-244065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}