PARTYNEXTDOOR at Rebel

Photos by Neil Van.

When it comes to the murky zones that R&B has delved into in the last few years, Toronto’s PartyNextDoor has garnered a solid following for his particular take on the sub genre. He has shifted from an unknown opener to one of the most common names tossed around in the ring due to his OVO Sound affiliation, PartyNextDoor series and songwriting (he most recently worked on Rihanna’s Anti). When it was announced that he and fellow R&B star/frequent collaborator Jeremih were hitting the road for the Summer’s Over tour, the prospect of the two artists bringing their sound and even possible hints of their future collaborative projects to the stage was an exciting genre melding experiment that needed to happen.

Sadly, mere days before the Toronto shows, Jeremih pulled out of his appearances due to schedule conflicts, leaving PartyNextDoor to take the lead at Rebel. Theoretically, this should have played out with an intensely hypnotic vibe and right into the hands of a very devoted crowd. Yet, behind the fair turnout, pulsing bass and stylized light work was a less enthusiastic PartyNextDoor, who, while singing correctly, failed to hit the right notes to make a memorable mark in his hometown.

Acknowledging that he didn’t feel completely up to the performance, PartyNextDoor ran through the motions, including a return to older material (“TBH”), rousing dance rhythms (“Not Nice”) and a nice throw over to his OVO boss, Drake (“Preach”). The core of the performance even lacked the enigmatic undertones that threads his work together, leaving an entire hour long set that mostly felt blank. There were two moments that gave the show a little more heart, the first being the mention of Party’s mother seeing him perform live for the first time. The second came near the end when his hit “Recognize” was pulled out as a part of the show’s conclusion. As audiences sang along to the words on the despair of attraction and Party embodied the song much more fully than any other performance, it became clear that that was the red cup moment of the night; it’s just a shame that there weren’t more.