Collaboration in Motion: Dijon in Chicago
2025 is deemed the Year Of Dijon on paper–– packed with high-profile partnerships with the likes of Justin Bieber on Swag I and Swag II and on Bon Iver’s SABLE, fABLE, among others.
Inside Chicago’s Salt Shed, the focus snapped back onto Dijon himself, his own work and who he brings it to life with.
The last time Chicago saw Dijon was in May of 2022 to a sold-out, 500-cap Lincoln Hall. That show was true in its performance value, Dijon was joined by a few of his peers on stage, including his frequent collaborator Mk.gee, all of them crowded around a singular table on a compacted stage. The atmosphere of the show was built on the bones of his debut album Absolutely and an authentic ecosystem.
His current tour offers a fully realized version of that experience, what seems to be the full vision coming to the forefront. Dijon stands encircled by nearly 10 of his peers, all of them encompassed by guitars, synths, a piano, a drum kit, and a trio of back up vocalists.
Each tethered to some glowing electronic component, be it a laptop by the drum kit or an extensive soundboard in the wings. The focal point of the entire show was a bouquet of collaboration, a synthesis of analog and digital highlights. It paints Dijon for what he is–– a singer-songwriter, yes, but also an architect of sound.
The setlist moves like a memoir, stretching his catalog from before his 2020 EP, How Do You Feel About Getting Married? to his poignant 2025 release Baby. It tracks a sweeping emotional spectrum; love, domesticity, demise and the spaces in between. A late start, delayed by the travels from his Saturday Night Live debut, only raised anticipation.
Opening the show was “Nico’s Red Truck,” an autumnal remembrance and memory-soaked lyrics settled the crowd instantaneously. Gospel-esque tones and full-scale lights arrive with “Higher!,” “Yamaha!,” and “Another Baby” lifted by a vocalist planted on his right side, turning the chorus into an outpouring of light. The addition of the vocalists gave way to the music’s dimension and physicality, the layers of the song being built visibly, brick-by-brick in real time.
The formation of “rock n’ roll” is where the setlist takes its turn, Dijon picking up an electric guitar, never to be abandoned again, eventually playing a one handed solo in “Fire!” and later to be cued into soulful renditions of “Annie” and “The Dress.”
Interludes become a spectacle of their own, a place where the band takes a breath, a drink, a moment to laugh and take in the emotion of the crowd. The back half of the show is airborne and unguarded, “Baby,” “Kindalove,” and “Rewind,” the part of the night where his storytelling lands most clearly.
An encore of “Rodeo Clown,” pivots the show into a joint effort with the audience, sending fans leaning over the barricade to time their claps with the beats of the song. Dijon, the band and the audience all work together to hold the final seconds of the show in the palm of their hands.
You can catch tickets to rest of the tour here.
