The SOLARIS Tour from Alt R&B singer, Joji, debuted in Newark, NJ, in support of the artist’s recently released album, “Piss In The Wind,” on June 16th, 2026. For the first time, fans got to hear the majority of the album live and see how the singer has reinvented his performance for this new run of shows.
Joji has shown an interest in very abstract staging, with past tours being constructed of hanging LED cubes matched by staging below, but this tour’s presence was much larger. Now, he performs within four layers of large LED frames, connected by a dynamic catwalk that tilted and lifted the performer into the air by some three stories, while only being tethered at the waist. This allowed for Joji to hang above the crowd, sit and swing his feet over the edge, or perform from the stage itself, with the catwalk platform serving as an overhead lighting piece. The visuals engulfing these screens were also amazing, at times intriguing, and at other times, a bit scary and challenging.
Joji’s visual art often juxtaposes its deeply emotional ballads with thrilling, boundary-pushing images, and the stage is the newest manifestation of this. The screens featured heavily distorted, analog glitched footage of the performer and his backing band which served as rich art for the eyes over the course of the night. The use of typical stadium screens to the side, and the massive, section-high screens as distortions, visuals, and atmosphere allowed for a balanced viewing that made any seat in the house feel a part of the performance. Add to this the rising stage that seemed to never stay in one place for more than one song, and the visual intrigue was always shifting and revealing something new.
Beginning the night under dimmed lights, the wall of LEDs illuminated the stadium in a vivid red light and flooded the space with smoke. A long, anticipation-building intro of pieced-together bits from tracks off the album boomed overhead. At the back of the stage and head of the catwalk, a panel door opened, flooding more smoke from a black void as the lights now began to flicker rapidly between red, black, and white. From the dark then emerged the singer with his hand held high as the audience vibrated the air throughout the arena. With a heavily distorted bass beat, Joji kicked off the night with “PIXELATED KISSES” straight into “Sojourn.”
Joji sounded fantastic. In the past, Joji has leaned into his absurdist humour onstage, allowing for his performances to feature much more comedic elements like switching the tones of songs, sound effects, or covers. This tour, however, seems to be a more earnest in the handling of songs, and while there are fun elements, such as a t-shirt cannon (which broke, resulting in t-shirt throwing) or a small humanoid robot (that also broke and could not return to the stage), the night was largely just Joji performing his music. A lot of it, too, as around 25 songs were performed in total, spanning across his five major projects.
The SOLARIS tour displays a great balance of Joji’s stage presence and the full experience of the concert. Being a much calmer performer, Joji’s more reserved performance felt larger than life with each song’s unique visualizers. Sometimes exploring live camera distortions and heavily glitched analog textures, but fully designed and animated scenes as well. The singer would duck backstage every couple songs while instrumental workings would play over the crowd, as was the case for tracks like, “rain on me,” "Plastic Taste,” and “Demons,” and on the screens, traces of a story would play through security-camera-like footage, showing a lanky cryptid creature maneuvering farmland, or a camera moving through a forest at night, passing humanoid robots, wolves, creatures, and more imagery that enhanced the vibe of his show. Joji puts it best himself in “ATTENTION,” saying, “I know I’m cryptic and I’m weird, that sh*t comes off as indifferent.” The singer asks for suspension of belief to engage with his art fully, and in doing so, he curates a unique conveyance of his music.
The setlist was paced very well, mixing slower ballads like “ATTENTION” with much faster, more rap adjacent tracks, like “NIGHT RIDER.” The short breaks off stage in between every five or so songs served for blocks of similarly arranged tracks to naturally flow through different energies. As a fan of Joji’s earlier work, I was happy to see inspiration derived from much of his early music, including “In Tongues” and “BALLADS 1”, which elicited big reactions. Though I haven’t listened to his new works as often, I think this music works extremely well live. The world he creates is easy to get sucked into, with lots of the music having the emotional, thought-provoking lyrics and an aggressive beat that forces you to tangibly feel the singer’s emotions rather than just imagine them. The nostalgia from a track like “worldstar money (interlude)” is astounding, but beyond an emotional tie to the lyrics, when the song's heavier second half breaks though the serene ukulele’s strumming, it causes an overwhelming flood of emotions. The sound hits, travelling down your neck, shooting through each follicle of hair, inciting a visceral reaction that cannot be perceived in many ways other than live in concert. Along with the communal singing and cheering, it was all extremely effective.
I loved Joji’s performance of “Tarmac” as a mash-up with elements of “Tick Tock.” The two tracks, which span three releases, share similar-sounding elements that allow the two to flow between each other seamlessly, elevating both of them when the surprise of hearing each washes over. A couple of songs also got a bit of a reworked delivery, either slightly stripped back or performed a bit slower. I enjoyed that fearlessness to break from a song’s predetermined sound and try something out, and the crowd’s willingness to try it was also very refreshing.
I must reiterate that Joji sounded exceptional. In some of his more emotionally driven ballads, Joji has some notes that he can’t shy away from, and while in the past I’ve seen some comedic performances of these songs, I thought the performances from this tour were extremely impactful. His sound is very full and confident, eager to fill the stadium’s airspace. “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” was performed as a totally stripped-down performance from the singer with a grand piano. Much slower than originally recorded, Joji took his time navigating the lyrics. Cast in one large light from behind and surrounded by a ring of smoky visuals, the silhouetted man serenaded a choir of fans singing back before the emotional climax returned the heavy synth and drum backing for the song’s most emotional beat followed by a release of bright white confetti emanating from behind him. It was a beautiful ending to the night.
I truly forgot how much of a fan of Joji's I was until he was on stage. With each song that came on, I became flooded with the lyrics returning to my memory, surprised to remember so much. I was absolutely taken aback by the stage design and the singer’s overall performances. The crowd itself, too, loved him. Not only were they a massively loud crowd, but a frequently loud crowd, cheering between breaks in choruses or songs or really any chance they got. It felt like a stadium eagerly awaiting a chance to experience his music again. Joji has surrounded himself with fantastic musicians, intriguing visual artists, and a behemoth of a crew who are just starting an absolute slog of work moving this stage around the country. Surrounded by so many knowledgeable, creative, and hard-working people, it's no surprise the concert was such a fantastically done, large-scale performance. The effort put in really made it feel like an event more than just another show. The SOLARIS tour has only just begun setting out across the US and will continue through the end of July, before heading overseas, with performances across Europe, Oceania, and eventually concluding in Hong Kong.
Tracklist (parentheses indicating nonperformed interludes)
PIXELATED KISSES / Sojourn / Ew / Sanctuary / LOVE YOU LESS / Glimpse of Us / (If It Only Gets Better) / Past Won’t Leave My Bed / Hotel California / Daylight / YEAH RIGHT / worldstar money (interlude) / (rain on me) / Will He / Horses to Water / Tarmac - Tick Tock / Pretty Boy / (Plastic Taste) / Afterthought / ATTENTION / Blah Blah / Like You Do / (Reanimator) / NIGHT RIDER / Last of a Dying Breed / Gimme Love / Doe for You / (Demons) / 1AM FREESTYLE / SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK
