I first heard of dvsn back in December from a friend of mine in Toronto who told me I had to check this guy out. My friend swore that he was the truth. You know people love them some soul/R&B music when someone uses the word truth to describe an artist. I quickly clicked on the SoundCloud link that was sent to be me via text and it lead me to With Me. Not too sure if this was the first official single released but the flow of the melody just rode the beat so hard. Then I heard The Line and Too Deep then I quickly hit the follow button because there was no way I wanted to miss any more projects being dropped. Hallucinations came shortly after and that song alone had me ALL UP IN MY FEELINGS, got me missing bae, but not most recent bae but 2 baes ago (wth).
At this point I thought dvsn was just one guy but it’s a duo composed of singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85 [shout out to wikipedia for that fun fact]. Their group is very reminiscent of Groove Theory, Lion Babe and Lucy Pearl with the singer/producer type pairing, super ill.
Their first album titled Sept 5th was released in March and the heavy beat, sensual melodic lyrical vibe continued. Every time a soul/R&B artist delivers a project I can't help but wonder how a live show would look. Can they sing live? Will they lip-sync? Are they a full packaged entertainer? There’s a huge difference between an artist that can sell records versus an artist that can sell records, sing their records live, sound good and perform [get you an artist that can do both] there’s definitely only a handful that can do it all, but I’ll tackle that another day.
Yo, praise all the is good in the music industry for social media. After hearing the first few tracks way back when, I started following them on Twitter and Instagram and they dropped major news that they would be going on an 11 city tour starting in Vancouver cheekishly called The Debut Tour 2016. When I first heard that they were going to be performing at Fortune Sound Club I was like reallllyyy??? head tilt side ways emoji. I love Fortune Sound Club but dvsn records are not really club-like. Their vibe is more like lets drink some vino, sit down or stand up and sway kind of music, but whatever. I was super excited to see them perform.
Side note: Vancouverites know that we are known as a ‘no fun city’ for the most part and it’s very rare that we get good artists to come through to bless our ears but over the past few years we have really stepped it up sooooo there was no way I wasn’t going to see them.
After a long day of work and meetings I headed to Fortune Sound Club. dvsn was slated to perform at 10:00PM so I got to the club around 10:45PM hoping to get there right when they got on stage. NOPE. In true, hip hop/club fashion they didn’t hit the stage until 11:45?? like damn, no one has to go to work tomorrow? it’s Wednesday, but I digress.
Daniel Daley hit he stage and he was backed up by three background vocals in choir robes. It was kinda lit, very Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book-esque so I was with it. I mean, with one album under their belt, reppin’ OVO, being Canadian this was a pretty good show for the first time coming out the block. I wasn’t expecting much, he definitely hit the falsettos. I was kind of wondering the purpose of the background vocals because for the most part he was singing over top of the tracks.
I feel for their debut tour it was good and I mean, he can sing his face off. Personally though dvsn has a lot of work to do in the sense of performing and engaging the crowd. This is the entertainment industry so entertain me sirs! Clearly, this was the very first show on their very first tour. Through the 11 city tour they will definitely find their groove. There is no doubt this group talented. It would have been nice to include the ‘duo’ in the show because there is a lot of confusion if dvsn is a solo act or a group. You know what I mean? All I’m saying is establish the shit!
Would I recommend people to catch dvsn live? hell yes! Was it the best concert I’ve been to? helllll nah! BUT I’m excited for the return of R&B and Daniel…keep hitting those falsettos! Shout out to you, you Canadian specials.
There’s still time to check him out:
Tour Dates:
June 15th Houston June 26th New York
June 17th Atlanta June 28th Montreal
June 19th Chicago June 30th Toronto
June 21st Washington
June 23rd Boston
