The New Face of Pop: Outasight and DEV @ The Middle East [Live Show Review]
Outasight. Photo by Ray Lego.
By: John Schmidt III
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’re listening to music playback service x (Pandora, the “radio”) and you’re singing along contentedly with song y, but when you try to recall the name of the artist singing the song, you’re at a complete loss. You know the words and you love that chorus, but you have no idea who is singing them. Peculiar, no? This happens to me almost everyday now, and since it’s started I can’t stop wondering who these people are. Are they signed? Do they have grills? Do they kill it? In the case of two artists I met last week, the answers are yes, no, and absolutely. DEV and Outasight are the artists behind “In the Dark” and “Tonight is the Night,” singles we’ve been singing along to for months, and they are worth getting to know.
I saw the artists perform at the Middle East Downstairs, and I met them in a little dressing room in the back of the venue. When we were introduced, DEV was scolding her manager and Outasight was asking the room if they had “ever seen a bottle of JD this big.” It wasn’t a great first impression, but after seeing their performances, I became an instant fan. Outasight opened with “Figure 8,” a title track from a previous EP. I was afraid he was going halt the momentum he had just built with great opening when he dropped the “here’s some new material” disclaimer, but he didn’t disappoint. The hooks were sharp, the performance was high-energy, and the crowd was having a blast. He closed with “Tonight is the Night,” and even this jaded, uncoordinated Berklee student was dancing his butt off. No grill, but he definitely killed it.
I thought DEV had a tough act to follow up, but in retrospect it seemed that Outasight had a tough act to build up to. DEV hit the stage full-force with her DJ and backup dancers (yes, backup dancers). She opened with her single “Booty Bounce” and kept her momentum going with plenty of hooky songs off of her new album, “The Night the Sun Came Up.” By the time she closed with “In the Dark,” I was somehow drenched in PBR, sweating, and dancing like I had some clue about what I was doing. Another all-star performance from an artist I hardly knew.
All in all, the show was a blast. Beforehand, I knew one single by each artist, and was convinced that they wouldn’t have much else to give. I was wrong. Each artist had a respectable cache of songs that made the audience dance and shout. The experience was transformative. I now know that artists aren’t equal to or less than the singles that gets them attention; sometimes, like in the case of DEV and Outasight, they are way more than those singles. Next time I struggle to name an artist I’m listening to, I’m going to look them up and try to see them live. You should do the same – that concert was one of the best nights I have had in months. The new face of pop is out there, and it is definitely worth seeing.