Concert Review: SZA at the Moody Center

Halfway through her “SOS” North American tour, SZA took the stage at the Moody Center on March 9, 2023.

Written by Heather Stewart 

Photos by Amelia Tapia

Five months following her headlining performance at ACL Festival, SZA returned to Austin for the North American leg of her “SOS” tour and delivered a mesmerizing performance at the Moody Center on March 9, 2023.  

Opener Omar Apollo left the crowd wanting more with his vocally rich, yet visually muted performance. “Y’all better turn up on this shit, get loud as fuck,” he exclaimed at the start of his most popular track, “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).” As a green haze saturated the audience, the crowd’s sing-along rose in volume. The enthusiasm was at an all time high as Apollo belted, “You know you really made me hate myself / Had to stop before I’d break myself / Shoulda broke it off to date myself / You didn’t deserve me at all.” 

Apollo concluded his set with softer, airy vocals as he sang “Go Away.” Visuals of orange, budding flowers and nature scenes acted as a nice backdrop to his performance of the shoegaze track. The crowd’s excitement compounded after Apollo exited the stage.

SZA made her stage debut with the smooth unreleased track “PSA” around 9:17 p.m. The words “SOS TOUR” popped on screen like the opening credits of a film, except audience members were anything but quiet in their seats. Once the screen lifted, the 33-year-old songstress revealed herself sitting on the edge of a diving board — a nod to the shipwrecked narrative of the show as well as the SOS cover art. Eventually, she moves from the diving board to a dock with electronic water flowing underneath. An eerie boathouse sat on stage left, along with a net and pillars wrapped with rope. 

Her vocals were powerful as she followed with “Seek & Destroy,” moving synchronously alongside her backup dancers who were dressed casually in all black. 

With a stunning creamsicle sunset visual behind her, SZA interacted with the crowd, shouting, “Austin, what’s good?” She then performed “Notice Me” before making an angelic spin to the iconic “Love Galore” from her 2017 debut album. As Travis Scott’s rap played, SZA jumped along with the crowd. Her joyful, bright stage presence was captivating, even with the intricate set design. She continued to hit high, complex notes with precision on CTRL’s “Broken Clocks,” demanding the crowd’s attention by closely mirroring her produced vocals.

For “Forgiveness,” the stage setting morphed into a ship bunker. SZA then sang a low-energy “Used” and a more vocally-dense cover of Erykah Badu’s “Bag Lady.” The dramatic aesthetics of the performance were more captivating than the musicality at points. 

Before moving onto “Blind,” the singer said that the song’s meaning is “more figurative than literal.” She explained that it’s about not being able to believe in yourself or see “what’s been placed in front of you by God.” She then went to center stage as an image of splashing water appeared behind her. Her powerful vocals reestablished themselves as she belted, “I can’t see, I’m blind.” 

The ethereal contemporary choreography of SZA’s background dancers  enhanced the visual complexity  of the performance as the musician gracefully sang “Shirt.” She disappeared backstage as a black-and-white video of her changing and interacting with her crew kept concert goers entranced. The screen lifted and revealed SZA and her backup dancers ready to perform on a gigantic prop boat.She swiftly returned in a long black dress adorned with ribbons and a leg slit for a seamless, low-energy performance of “All of the Stars.” Her enunciation was particularly stellar on “Prom,” and her stage presence hit an all time high. She wailed, “Please, please / Don’t take it personal,”  before bursting into an ‘80s-movie-style dance break. 

SZA and her guitarist moved to the top of the prop boat  before performing the emotionally-driven “Garden.” There was less movement, allowing the aesthetic-heavy show to breathe with SZA’s powerful ballad vocals and the guitarist's badass instrumentals. There was a soft sway among the crowd. 

The energy shifted once more with SZA’s pop-punk-adjacent “F2F,” a unique track in comparison to her calmer R&B hits. She embraced frustration in her facials, and the sea’s chaotic gestures echoed this. However, her stamina noticeably dwindled as she tried to hit a high note, but instead had a voice crack. She quickly recovered, redeeming herself with the concluding high notes of the track as she stomped around stage in a big, lacy skirt. 

The Missouri-born artist then transitioned into solemnity with a chill-inducing, instrumentally-soft performance of “Drew Barrymore.” Some members of the crowd closed their eyes, while others screamed along. A towering drum solo at the conclusion of the song as well as the increasingly-rocky waves mirrored the release of both the performer’s and crowd’s catharsis. SZA slipped into a more sultry performance with the explicit “Doves in the Wind.” Sexual tension bloomed onstage between her and a backup dancer as they rocked along to the waves.

More cinematic gestures came once SZA and her male backup dancer moved into the iconic Titanic pose before the upbeat “Low” brought a sharp mood shift into the air. This perfectly over-the-top drama paired with the instrumental buildup made for a breathtaking scene. When SZA dropped into a split, the crowd overflowed with cheer, which only grew as a jaw-dropping set reveal ensued. A lighthouse towered over the back of the crowd and sent lights across the venue. 

The chaos of this song’s performance resulted in shipwreck, and SZA was lost at sea in a puffy white princess dress. She floated above the crowd on a bright orange emergency raft with a blue haze of lights acting as the water. A calmness filled the air as the singer threw white flower petals or confetti onto the crowd and sang a multi-album mashup of three heart-wrenching tracks: “Open Arms,” “Supermodel,” and “Special.” These heavy emotions climaxed as SZA embraced isolated vocals with the tearjerker “Nobody Gets Me.” The heartbroken members of the crowd were bound to be crying at this point as titillating piano, raw vocals, and emotionally hard-hitting lyrics came together on SZA’s “Gone Girl.”

A flash of white light woke up the saddened crowd at the start of the titular “SOS” performance. A video of bubbling water overlaid the concert’s jumbotron, which was one of the first corny aspects of the otherwise mature performance. After a solo performance of poppy Doja Cat collab “Kiss Me More” and the vocally dynamic “Love Language,” a massive anchor was revealed on stage along with a beeping alarm sound. 

The originally blue-heavy stage was now saturated in red lighting as SZA walked out with a ball and chain for the violent “Kill Bill.” Her dancers acted as shadow figures on the bloodied backdrop. The crowd later screamed along to the lyrics of “I Hate U” with their middle fingers up: “Shitty of you to make me feel just like this / What I would do to make you feel just like this / And if you wonder if I hate you / Fuck you.”

SZA’s closing song was the vocally strong, guitar heavy performance of “The Weekend.” Purple rain flowed on the stage’s backdrop as SZA beautifully crescendoed, “My man is my man, your man / Heard it’s her man too.” After letting out all of her pent up emotions in the middle of the concert, SZA was able to embrace chill energy. 

But she returned for an encore performance of “Good Days,” wearing a purple lavender dress and blending into the sunset. The nostalgic song was paired with visuals of the night sky, Earth, and the moon. Despite minimal vocal hiccups that SZA humbly apologized for after the conclusion of “Good Days,” the concert carried a beautiful narrative by combining naturistic symbolism, a shipwreck climax, and a meticulous use of props. On top of this, the songstress’s dynamic, seamless vocals, and the deep lyricism of her two albums elevated the emotional intricacy of the performance. The show concluded with a video of a car explosion scene rolling credits as “Poppin’” played in the background. It was all tied together with a blue-and-white, sparkled “The End” screen. This cinematic concert experience gets four and a half stars on Letterboxd.