A translucent silver scrim, running from floor to ceiling, undulates like waves to twinkling piano. Behind it, 070 Shake sits on a chair – sultry, styled in a black leather jacket and beret – crooning her opening song, ‘Sin’, about the death of a relationship, so smoothly that the crowd is gripped by the mood, transported for a fleeting moment to a smoky jazz club.
But not for long.
Petrichor is a biochemical term for the scent that rises from the earth after it rains. In front of the curtain, behind a singular mic stand, the final nights of 070 Shake’s tour begin—an opulent calm before a viscerally vulnerable, genre-bending storm.
From the outset New Jersey native Danielle Balbuena, better known as 070 Shake, reminds us she’s a multi-headed hip-hop Hydra – a fierce experimentalist and lyrical seductress – on the precipice of tearing into auto-tuned rap ballads, do-wop, whiplash trap, or honeyed hooks laced with grandiose arena-rock licks in an instant.
A symphony of shadows ensues as prolific Cali guitar virtuoso Josh Landau, aka Stolen Nova, unleashes a howling riff as fans rush to the stage in applause.
Shake commands the sold-out, blood-red ballroom – from the dance floor to the velvet-flanked balcony – laying her feelings bare while her band plays on under aqua-tinted spotlights. Swerving into ‘Petrichor”s ‘Elephant’ and ‘Pieces of You’ with lackadaisical swag, she flexes her vocal prowess on bars about the sun exploding, feeling out of place in the world, falling in love, and paranoia on deeper album cuts ‘Vagabond’, ‘Into Your Garden’, and ‘What’s Wrong With Me’, bathed in a golden-tangerine glow, strings billowing in silhouette, crystalline keys shimmering behind her.
As she plunges into her back catalogue with ‘Skin and Bones’, ‘History’, and ‘Wine and Spirits’ off her critically lauded last album, ‘You Can’t Kill Me’, the roaring crowd belts out every verse – culminating in a double reprise of the bass-laden, strobe-soaked ‘Cocoon’.
Shifting gears, Shake launches into a rock ‘n’ roll rendition of ‘Winter Baby’ – a performance that could have been crafted for a David Lynch sock hop, complemented by ’60s diner projections. Before fittingly traversing into a cinematic sequence on a stool, where sinister claws spiral in the shadows of her brooding late-Lynch homage to Blue Velvet, complete with a stripped-back Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks sample.
The night builds to a thunderous climax as otherworldly talents take the stage.
Little Simz arrives to go bar for bar with her arm draped around Shake in a matching jet-black beret to perform their blistering track ‘Gorilla’. Next up, Shake’s joined by RAYE who arrives in style, in a strappy gown and dark glasses, glass of red wine placed precariously in hand. She’s come out to toast the duo’s monumental Billboard chart debut and Brit Awards Song of the Year ‘Escapism’ – a track about a debaucherous trip.
Stolen Nova shreds a psychedelic solo that would give Clinton and Clapton shivers, gripping a custom Perspex Fender while being passed overhead by the mosh pit masses, before rejoining Shake for a maximal, balls-to-the-wall rock version of ‘Blood on Your Hands’ joined on stage by the entire ensemble.
Throughout the night, Shake is intoxicating and entirely charming, taking breaks to chat with Jersey fans and wax poetic about her music and her day-one supporters.
She lights up a smoke in the interim, reacquainting herself with her band as a hypnotic piano solo melts into ‘Guilty Conscience’ – all while simultaneously autographing albums before closing on a high.
Grabbing the mic one last time, Shake tenderly says goodbye with a song about endless love – undoubtedly for her girlfriend, Lily-Rose Depp who sings with Vanessa Paradis from the wings above the stage.
“I’m going to end the whole show on this note, and this is how I ended my record—it’s called ‘Love’. All these other songs tonight I did for you guys, but this song, I’m doing for me.
