After dropping his fourth studio album Demons Protected by Angels, NAV is back on tour since 2019. His second stop on the list was Chicago’s very own Aragon Ballroom in the city's Uptown neighborhood on the Northeast side. The last time NAV performed at the Aragon was also in 2019 when he was an opener for ScHoolboy Q’s TrasH Talk tour. A full circle moment now that he’s headlining his very own tour called the Never:Sleep Tour. The tour's supporting acts include Canadian Singer, RealestK, and Cactus Jack Records signee, SoFaygo.
While the audience was making their way into the venue, right at 7:00 PM, RealestK walked onto the stage where he was well received by the arriving crowd. RealestK set the R&B mood out of the gate, starting off with "WFM". From that point forward, RealestK had everyone’s heads nodding for the rest of his set.
Although interaction with the crowd was limited, certain songs definitely had a crowd reaction; especially with the ladies. RealestK performed around 12 songs- including "Toxic" and "Love me". With just recently dropping his debut album Dreams 2 Reality this past October, the 18-year-old announced a new single dropping this month called “You & I” before stepping off the stage.
Minutes later, SoFaygo’s DJ, DJ Backwoods, started things back up with Chief Keef’s "Faneto" and changed up the atmosphere before the rager went on. By 7:43 PM, the crowd was starting to fill more than half of the venue floor. SoFaygo came out strong and had the crowd going crazy with their phone lights out from the jump. The 35-minute set was full of energy from start to finish, even during their more seemingly slow-tempo songs of his.
SoFaygo made sure to interact with his fans and had the crowd excited when he performed songs from his recently dropped album Pink Heartz. Some of those tracks included his song with Lil Uzi Vert, "Stay Awake" and "TookOf" with Gunna and DJ Khaled as well as a preview to an unreleased song ‘Problems’. The set ended just right with "Knock Knock", a song that Chicago’s Cole Bennett of Lyrical Lemonade acted as director of the music video.
Starting right on-time at 8:30 pm, the first Brown Boy to get it poppin’ runs onto the stage with a crowd favorite from his new album, Never Sleep--the packed crowd went wild. NAV told his fans that 'it feels good to be back in Chicago after 4 years' and gave a few shout-outs to all the Brown Boys in the building. This set was truly meant for NAV fanatics for this Toronto native really focused on his throwbacks, performing them almost back-to-back, nonstop.
The biggest and loudest reaction the crowd gave was when TJ Banks, NAV’s DJ, dropped "Biebs in the Trap"-- one of the first songs that brought NAV into the scene back in 2016. NAV acknowledged his Day-ones by saying “Chicago knows ALL the words...” of every throwback and even the new songs from his recent album--which was true, almost every song had the crowd singing along word for word.
18 songs in and this XO artist decided to slow it down and become a bit more intimate by having the stage lights dim down and using the lights from the crowd’s phones to light up the venue as he sat down in the middle of the front of the stage and performed "Myself" then brought the energy back up with "Tap" right after. From the very beginning, both NAV and TJ Banks had the crowd on lock but NAV took it to another level when he came down the stage and performed “No Debate” and “Baguettes in the Face” in the middle of the pit. You could actually hear the fans screaming the lyrics into the mic as he performs.
Once back on stage, RealestK came back out as a guest and they performed "Lost Me". Before he ended the night, Nav told the crowd “Y'all been f*ckin’ with me all night,” then performed the first single off his upcoming album NAV 2, “Lately” and a few more fan favorites after that. Once he walked off after performing the last song "Lemonade", fans were starting to disburse until TJ Banks dropped "Turks" and had everyone run back for the encore. The visual of an energetic NAV on stage and the jumping crowd for that song was a sight to see. It was the perfect way to end this one-hour, 30-song performance for the Never:Sleep Tour.
The Never:Sleep Tour is only in the beginning stops of the tour, Chicago being the 2nd stop out of the 23 shows. If you feel like you are overdue for a NAV concert, this tour is for you! Especially before NAV drops NAV 2, which will be dropping after this tour. Get your tickets for the NEVER:SLEEP Tour tickets by clicking the link below.
NEVER:SLEEP TOUR TICKETS FOR SALE
Photos by Keeton Robinson