Oklou @ Royale 4/30

Photography by Owen Butler

Review by Camille Morocco

On April 30th, on a Thursday night, just before nine, a line of what appeared to be hundreds of fans traced the sidewalk of Boston’s Royale, waiting to get in and see Oklou’s sold-out set. The show marked one of the final stops of Oklou’s “choke enough 2026 U.S. Tour,” with Boston being the penultimate stop on the tour. 

The tour, which began in March and wrapped this weekend, had a setlist that featured mostly songs from Oklou’s album “choke enough,” which was released in January 2025. However, it also included songs from Oklou’s 2020 album “Galore,” along with covers and a song from the “choke enough” deluxe edition. 

The set, which lasted about an hour and twenty minutes, included music that made you want to hold hands with your friend at a club and dance without shame, alongside songs about heartbreak with motifs of unrequited love. From the beginning of the set, the production design was strong, with flashing lights that mimicked a club. 

Oklou opened the set with “ict,” an upbeat, fast-paced song full of repeated verses about summer. Also early in her set was “obvious,” a song that Oklou said was one of her favorites. It was my first time hearing it, and I really enjoyed the song–the beat is much slower than many of her other songs, and there is a sort of wondrous intentionality in the lethargy of the piece. It sounds, to me, like something that would play in the background of a club during the moments when you feel like everything is moving in slow motion. I really loved the brass instruments on the track–I don’t often hear them in electronic/dance music, and thought it was a great addition. 

Oklou was accompanied by two others on stage, one of whom was Casey MQ, who helped in creating “choke enough.” The set included “take me by the hand,” which, in the studio recording, includes verses from both Oklou and Bladee. At the show, Casey MQ sang Bladee’s verses. After the song finished, Oklou recited some of the song’s lyrics: “Holy inspiration comes/Through the nerves in this suspension,” and told the crowd, “I’m not really sure what it means, but I think it’s a really beautiful line, written by my friend Bladee.”

The set remained upbeat and powerful throughout, and featured a really cool set design and audience experience. 

At one point, a live feed was projected on a huge screen behind Oklou, projecting footage a team member was capturing as they ran around the venue. It featured both Oklou and her band, along with members of the crowd at the barricade. From the audience perspective, it really seemed like Oklou wanted to be there and was grateful–she thanked everyone on her team by name, including those in her band and in the stage and tech crew. One of my favorite parts of the set was during the song “choke enough.” In the song, a line says “Take a photo,” and during the performance, Oklou actually took a disposable photo of her and the audience. 

My favorite part of the entire set was the last song of the encore, “blade bird.” It’s also the closing track of the most recent album, and has been one of my most listened to songs for a while. It’s quite acoustic, and seemingly describes her lover as a bird that, as birds do, flies away from her, and her feeling like a cage, trapping the bird. Devastatingly, she knows the love is unreciprocated, and repeats “I’ll be the one/Who ends up getting hurt,” often throughout the song. As a lover of poetry and slower, more acoustic songs, I find this song to be so beautifully artistic and a wonderful metaphor for a waning, fleeting love. 

I truly enjoyed myself at Oklou’s set. I loved watching the crowd dancing, and felt like everyone was having a good time. I’ve always loved Oklou’s “blade bird,” but hadn’t heard much of her discography outside of this track prior to Thursday’s set. Since then, I’ve been streaming “choke enough” on repeat and am inspired to hear more of her art.