Solána Imani Rowe, also known as SZA, recently went on a short tour and by a stroke of luck, Denver was included in that list of cities. SZA’s Ctrl has been the soundtrack of my life since it came out in 2017. If you’ve ever been in the car with me, you’re welcome for the SZA bangers. I may even go as far as to say SZA is my favorite artist.
“Need you for the old me, need you for my sanity
Need you to remind me where I come from”
During summer 2018, I had tickets to see The Championship Tour with SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Lance Skiiiwalker, and Kendrick Lamar, among others. During this time, SZA was struggling with vocal cord issues and could not perform.
Although I like those other artists, SZA was the reason I was at that concert. So, when I heard she was coming to Denver, I ran to get those tickets. Did I know how I was getting to Denver? No. But, it was going to happen.
Then, on November 6, just three days before I saw her this time, she tweeted that she was sick and cancelled her Austin concert. At this point, her Twitter notifications are on, and I am convinced I have bad luck with SZA concerts or something. My roommate who went with me and I were manifesting this concert, hoping and praying that it would happen.
“Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday”
Then, it’s finally the day of. It’s a Tuesday, which I have other thoughts about, but for SZA, I’ll make it work. I’m finished with class for the day, and I run home to start getting ready for the concert. Deciding what to wear is no easy feat. I landed on a brown zebra print dress with a black button-up and doc martens. Running to the bus station in Boulder, I’m convinced we are going to miss this bus and be late to the concert, but alas, we make it on.
I’ll spare you lengthy descriptions of waiting in line, but we finally make it into the venue and even two and a half hours after doors opened, the opener, Doechii, hasn’t even gone on yet. It’s perfect timing to get in the merch line, grab a beer, and settle into a comfy spot without any tall people ahead.
The merch, by the way, is so so cute. If you see me wearing it every day for a few weeks, I don’t want to hear it.
Doechii comes on, and despite only knowing the TikTok sound “Doechii, why don’t you introduce yourself to the class?”, her intro was so good and full of energy. Then, the lights dim. The music starts. She starts with “Supermodel”, the first song on “Ctrl”.
I really can’t pick favorites, so I have to say I love this song with a grain of salt that I love them all. Her set was a large white chair with screens behind her that had corresponding visuals for each of the songs. It was such a simple set, which allowed me to focus on her and the music.
“You know just takin’ it slow babe
Somebody show me the door babe”
Something I thought was really interesting was that SZA stopped in the middle of a song at least once to help someone who needed medical attention, handed out many waters to those who felt faint, and was so aware of the crowd and looked for signals of people needing help. She even had the lighting people light up the crowd a few times, and she asked if everyone was okay.
Going to a concert just days after the Travis Scott Astroworld tragedy, I was a bit nervous. Although I didn’t go very close to the stage, thinking about those who were close made me anxious. It really helped that within the first 15 minutes of the concert beginning, SZA was already checking in on the crowd.
During the concert I felt so free and so happy that I was finally able to see her live. Sometimes at concerts in the past, I didn’t want to sing too loud in case anyone heard me, but that wasn’t even on my mind at this concert.
During “20 Something”, another one of my favorites, she even had pictures and videos of her grandma, who was featured on the album and passed in 2019. Feeling her connection with this song, her grandmother and all the things she felt as she wrote these lyrics was so powerful.
I’ll admit that these concert tickets were expensive. I missed the presale, so I had to buy resale tickets from someone, but despite dropping almost $200 on this concert, throughout the concert I kept thinking, “I would pay so much more money to be here right now.”
“Why is it so hard to accept the party is over?”
The only thing that could’ve been improved at this concert was if it went on for longer. Apparently there is a curfew in Denver that ends at 11pm for people under 18, so she wanted to make sure everyone was home in time that needed to be.
I know that this isn’t SZA’s fault, or anything anyone could have controlled, but I wish the concert would have started earlier to make up for this. One of my favorite parts of concerts is that time between songs where the artist talks to you about why they wrote a song, and there wasn’t time for much of that.
Crowd: 9/10 Good energy, enough space, people knowing the lyrics
Audio: 9/10 Sometimes I was singing too loud to hear!
Visuals: 10/10 The sentimentality plus the corresponding colors made this so immersive and special
This was a great concert, and I wish I could do it again and again, but I’m mostly just glad that the second time’s the charm. Thank you to SZA, thank you to the Fillmore. To the City of Denver, I’m mad at you.