CHON – DOMi and JD Beck: Live at Royale


Do you like experimental jazz fusion with dizzying drum patterns and enough time signature changes to make any music theory student do their version of the happy dance? Then have I got a show for you! Chon with DOMi and JD Beck!

I haven’t been to Royale for a show since, I think, 2015 to see Aaron Lewis and I and had only been to the nightclub once before then for birthday party way back in college. But walking into the venue after a little walk to get there, as I had a friend who lent me a parking space to leave my car, I was pleasantly surprised. I can honestly say that Royale may be one of my favorite venues to shoot at now, and that hurts me to say. Mainly because I grew up on shows at the Worcester Palladium and The Tip in Lowell, is that place even still open? It’s been a while. Anyway, on to the show…

I walked into the venue with the vague memory of this place in my mind, giant chandelier included. I walked in, got my bearings and just waited around soaking in what would become my “office” for the night. You could hear pretty much everyone talking about music theory and how “this” band and “that” band used different variations of a scale to get a different chord sequence or something like that. I never took music theory, hooray for community college dropouts!

The first and only opening act, as I would later find out, took the stage pretty quickly. This was a super early show in general, but we’ll get there… gimmie a minute. DOMi & JD Beck is a duo from France and Dallas, TX (respectively). Furthermore, DOMi is 17 years old and JD Beck only 16! I can’t stress that point enough, these are kids, playing experimental low-fi hip-hop with classical skill that I wish I had when I was their age. I can’t name a single song that they played because I’m fairly certain that what they did was just straight-up jam to the fullest on stage for thirty minutes, and I dug every minute of it, like a lot. This was not my normal kind of show to go to, but I’m glad I did because this shit was awesome!

Remember, how I said that I would “soon find out that the first and only opening band got on stage”, well this is where I found out. Chon got on stage without missing a beat and I was originally thrown for the loop. I thought that DOMi and JD Beck were two separate artists performing two separate acts, once again, I was wrong… and I’m okay with that! Chon walked on stage almost with the demeanor of some kids at a middle school talent show, uttering out a line of “Hey guys. So uhh, we’re Chon. And we’re gonna play some for you. Cool?” I was hooked from that point on. They played a few songs off of their new self-titled album Chon because they said “Here’s a song off our new album!” a few times during the set. They played phenomenally, their skill is unparalleled, it’s dizzying to watch both guitarists Mario Camarena and Erick Hansel play off of each other back and forth. But I’ll be damned if I wasn’t itching for more. And like I said earlier, this was a super early show. The entire venue was empty and closed by 9:45 PM… in downtown Boston… on a Saturday… at a well-known nightclub. Regardless of that, this was an absolute treat to watch, witness, and cover.

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS SMALL