WORDS BY JACKIE NG - PHOTOS BY JULIAN BAJSEL

I stood in the midst of the Shrine as the venue filled with hundreds and hundreds of people dressed in glam and buzzed with the energy of excitement. As Fred Again walked onto the stage, I felt as if this would be one of the moments that one can describe as a rare lifetime performance. The stage flashed with entrancing visuals from Fred Again’s personal moments and journey — all leading to the intro slide of his performance illustrating the simple text of “hi”.

The crowd went wild as the room echoed the familiar beats of Fred Again as the lights came down…and it made you forget about everything else around you. It was inevitable to feel lost in the music and that you could dance the entire night away. The span of the visuals being shown on stage felt all so unique and well produced for each individual song that we can see that Fred is a true artist even when he’s not creating sound- Fred’s album ‘Actual Life’ was surely a testimony to this. You could see visuals ranging from a subway station in slow motion to moments of a newborn baby. It felt like every collaborator Fred produced alongside with, was also up on the stage with him as we saw these artists star across the videos. The performance felt so diverse and very much like a secret visual diary of Fred’s inner thoughts turned into sound.

Each song of the night made you feel like you were entranced by each beat as the stage flashed multiple colors and a skylight of imagery. Fred made his way to the other side of the room’s stage as the crowd parted a path for him. He was so at ease with the crowd and made LA feel like home to him. At one point in the show, he synthesized the sounds of the crowd’s cheer to playback, which was an astonishing rendition of the performance. The audience roared in exhilaration as they jumped to every beat and… I never wanted the concert to end. Every piece of Fred Again’s show at the Shrine felt like a world of art, that you can jump into over and over again.

FRED AGAIN