Leon Bridges with Kali Uchis at the Danforth Music Hall

Photographs by Sarah Rix.

Leon Bridges is some kind of fairy tale. 

When you see him on stage through a mist of gold and deep blue lights soulfully crooning the night away, there is no other explanation. Such a show feels like it’s a mythical thing because it is strikingly fresh, oddly in a time where anything tinged with eighties and nineties is considered wrought with nostalgia. And yet Leon Bridges, while very much reviving a lost genre, is no thing of the past.

With a viral hit on Spotify, a couple of Apple commercials, his critically-acclaimed debut album, Coming Home and being a modern-day Otis Redding, Leon Bridges’ time is now. He talks about his journey to music in our podcast. It seems that Toronto is very much aware of that fact (Bridges is already booked for a show at Massey Hall in 2016), as they packed The Danforth Music Hall on Friday night to catch the rising star, ready to shimmy-shake the night away.

Bridges took notice. “Y’all came ready tonight!” he commented a few times, and the same could be said for him and his backup band. From Bridges’ suit to the incredible saxophonist and the polite clap the entire band gave in thanks to opener Kali Uchis, nearly every element of the evening screamed old school southern charm and soul. Things were finger snappin’, foot-tappin’ during performances of “Flowers” and “Smooth Sailin’”, making the 60s-era soul ooze in a dream-like night. 

Tying it all together were the voices; Bridges, of course, who was vocally cheeky, vivacious and earnest all-at-once, but his back-up singer Brittni Jessie was a wonder as well. Together, they gave “River” the spiritual, pure life it so heavily represents, creating a highlight in a set filled with so many moments of perfect, sweet melodies. “Coming Home”, Bridges’ breakout hit,  “Lisa Sawyer” and “Better Man” were all the type of decade escapisms the audience could groove with so easily. The only complaint: why did it have to end?