Japanese-Australian artist Joji takes the stage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles for his fourth show in the Pandemonium tour. The show opened with SavageRealm, Lil Toe and Kenny Beats.
Before he was known as Joji, George Miller went by two pseudonyms, Pink Guy and Filthy Frank. He launched a YouTube channel with his Filthy Frank persona, which consisted of different challenges and rap songs. With this, Pink Guy was his eccentric dancing and singing alter-ego.
Before shelving his YouTube channel, Joji put out an album under Pink Guy which ended up hitting number nine on Billboard’s U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums.
In 2017, Joji joined 88rising, a music collective that supports artists of Asian descent. He went on to release several songs and had his first live performance as Joji during the same year. In November of that year, he released his EP, In Tongues, and the rest was history.
Kicking things off in Texas, Joji’s Pandemonium Fall World tour encompasses most of the states before making its way to Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and more. The much anticipated tour is leading many fans to believe that this could result in the making of a new album very soon.
After a night of emotions and eye-catching visuals that left people satisfied, Joji showed his appreciation for L.A. multiple times throughout the show.
“You guys here in L.A. are crazy,” he said on stage. “This crowd is just so awesome.”
Starting off his set with “Sanctuary,” the 2020 song from the album “Nectar,” Joji takes the crowd through quite the night.
“I feel like I’m not in my body,” said Beulah Kure, Joji fan who attended the concert. “You know when you walk out of a really good movie and you feel so inspired to take over the world, that’s how I feel right now.”
According to fellow Joji fan Marissa Brown, the concert left everyone feeling more connected with Joji’s music and the people around them.
“I realized that the people around us are all kind of mutually feeling the same,” said Brown. “I feel like he brings us together. He just makes you feel whole at the end.”
Aside from the setlist and the high emotions in the arena, the visuals were another aspect of Joji’s set that people took note of.
“I loved the visuals, the cubes, like the optical illusions going on,” said Kure. “That was really good.”
The stage consisted of multiple cubes, which were used as projectors to change visuals for each song and as reflectors throughout the night. They were also used as boxes for the musicians to stand on. At the beginning of the show, the center cube rose up to reveal Joji to the crowd.
Brown acknowledges this as well, saying that the effects elevated Joji’s on-stage presence and brought the show to life.
“I think the on-stage presence of him and then also just the effects that are on stage just feel very alive,” said Brown.
Both Kure and Brown agree that the overall energy of Joji at the Crypto.com Arena is what really brought this show to life and left them with a sense of fulfillment..
“I feel like we were surrounded by people who were passionate about the music, which made the whole energy just feel so wholesome and safe,” said Kure.
“We’re kind of mutually feeling the same, that kind of brings us together as a whole. I just thought that was really nice,” added Brown.
Joji ended the show with his most recent hit, “Glimpse of Us,” leaving much of the crowd standing, waving their phone flashlights in the air and screaming out the lyrics at the top of their lungs.
After performing in L.A., Joji headed over to the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, Oct. 7.