Oliver Tree Brings Wacky and Wonderful to Washington DC

You won’t be feeling Alone in a Crowd at an Oliver Tree Show

If you know anything about musician Oliver Tree, I’m sure you would expect his live show to be a wild ride. In case you don’t know, I’m here to lay it out for you. I had the opportunity to drop into The Anthem in Washington DC on a damp Wednesday night to catch a live performance.

I slap my media sticker on my Teddy Fresh shirt (if you know, you know) and head to the barrier. There’s a handful of other photogs patiently awaiting showtime. As a pretty seasoned concert photographer, I fully expect to be waiting at minimum ten minutes after 8 pm for the show to start, this is how things go in this business. To my surprise, the lights dim at 7:54 pm, and I rush to stake out my spot in the photo pit.

First up is Jasiah, an artist I am not familiar with but he’s on tour with Oliver Tree so I can only assume I’m in for an outlandish treat. His set kicks off with a mini set from his DJ (who is also his cousin and best friend) named DJ Dijon. Dijon hypes the crowd with a few early 2000’s hits such as “Mr. Brightside” and “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”. He’s certainly hitting the marks with these picks, the crowd is roaring in excitement and singing along without missing a beat. Dijon brings out Jasiah, they do a super secret handshake and Jasiah takes over.

I’m immediately taken by the visuals that play behind Jasiah as he raps. They’re reminiscent of an old Adult Swim show called “Superjail!”, sinister and bloody. (I loved Superjail! so I’m all about this.)

“Crisis” is a song on his setlist and he samples a sound commonly used in “Courage The Cowardly Dog” which excites the crowd, myself included. Something that surprised me about Jasiah’s set, he played a really powerful ballad-type song where he sang beautifully. I believe it’s unreleased and I unfortunately did not catch the title of it but, wow. A+ from me. Jasiah’s set is short and sweet but he’s earned a new fan in me. He leaps off of the stage and crowdsurfs back to the merch table where he signs things for fans. What a guy.

FIDLAR takes the stage next, they’re a four-piece sorta grunge-looking band that I’ve heard of before tonight. They collaborated with K.Flay on a song called “Called You Twice” which I was obsessed with for a good while.

The band wastes no time getting started, they begin their set a few minutes ahead of time as well. FIDLAR is high energy and has the audience with their hands in the air, jumping all about. Not to be a hater, but their set didn’t exactly hit for me. Their songs ran together and sounded super similar to each other. They did perform a song called “40 oz. On Repeat” which I truly loved and ended up adding to my music library. FIDLAR’s video visuals were very impressive, they had tons of stop-motion-like videos of everyday items being arranged to spell out the band name. I did find the high-pitch “thank you” between songs cute and endearing, though I couldn’t pinpoint which of the band members was doing it!

FIDLAR wrapped up their set and made way for Oliver Tree. There was an unexpected performance before the main act, though. Out onto the stage walk to people wearing vintage computer monitors on their heads. Dial-up sounds play and Windows start-up animations play on the screen behind them. Their worn computer screens play the same animations, it’s surely a sight to see. The crowd appears to be just as fascinated as I am by the techy DJs, a few people at the barrier sporting questionable looks but their interest is piqued. The computer men shake and shimmy as they spin sick beats, I’m honestly mostly taken by what I’m seeing more than what I’m hearing. Like green binary code scrolls across their heads and the screen behind them and stage lights cross each other as they beam out into the venue. I learned that these guys are called Super Computer, and they conclude their set with hypnotism demanding the crowd listen to and spend every last penny coming to see Super Computer. This is so on-brand for an Oliver Tree show, and apparently, Super Computer just got signed to Oliver’s record label, Alien Boy Records. Congrats guys!

Finally, it’s time for Oliver to take the stage. I rush back over from the side of the stage and ready my camera, only to find that I have several more minutes to prepare. Some previews play before Oliver’s set. Yeah, exactly like the ones before a movie, except these all feature the man himself. I’m impressed by this and it’s super quirky and cool. I found myself giggling several times at his low-brow humor showcased during his previews. The videos end and a pink couch is wheeled onto the stage by two stagehands dressed head to toe in black clothing.

The stage lights come on and Oliver Tree is sitting on the couch, facing away from the crowd. He spun around and began singing his viral hit, “Miss You”. If you’ve ever seen a photo of Oliver, you know just how eccentric and weird his style is. He’s wearing a full matching outfit, down to the shoes, of a pink and blue squiggle pattern paired with a dark bowl-cut wig and Matrix sunglasses. His energy surprised me, he was dancing back and forth across the stage literally all evening.

There are several acts to Oliver Tree’s set, like a play. For each set, there’s a different outfit worn by Oliver and his band. Yes, they are all dressed the same, down to the wigs. For Act Two, the outfit is from the “Cowboy Tears” era. A blonde mullet wig, a cowboy hat with blue jeans, and a blue fringe jacket. One of my favorite songs is performed during this act, called “Cowboys Don’t Cry”. Oliver’s stagehands wheel out a large life-size fake cow that Oliver jumps up on during the song. His stagehands spin the cow as Oliver belts his sad cowboy tune.

Act Three is THE Oliver Tree I remember being introduced to when I discovered his music, “Ugly is Beautiful”. The bowl-cut wig is back, he’s wearing red sunglasses that are too small for his face, a color block jacket, and JNCO jeans. If you’re not hip to what JNCOs are, they’re bellbottom jeans but the bottoms are HUGE. Oliver plays another popular hit, “Alien Boy” as he darts back and forth on stage. I’m impressed that he doesn’t get tripped up by how enormous the bottoms of his jeans are. At one point, Oliver’s wig flies off to reveal a goofy and obvious bald cap. The dancing and theatrics don’t stop, including but not limited to a comically large acoustic guitar and a gigantic SNES controller that Oliver uses to “play” an Oliver Tree video game as he rests on his pink couch.

Oliver Tree offers a few encore songs, including another viral Tik-Tok hit, “Life Goes On”. The entire crowd knows this one, I’m pretty sure it’s his most popular song. Before we say goodbye, Oliver tells us his parents and grandma are in the crowd tonight. Oliver was born in D.C. after all. It’s his grandmother’s 95th birthday and he requests that we sing her happy birthday, because “it could be her last birthday”. Yeah, he said actually did say that.

Wow, what a show. The energy in The Anthem tonight was explosive. I was already an Oliver Tree fan but seeing him perform live put a whole new spin on my appreciation for him as an artist. As I walk out the doors and into The Wharf, I’m hoping to catch him again soon.

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see.