📍Moody Theater @ ACL Live — August 24, 2025
Written by Krysta Ayers
On Sunday, the heavens parted at night for a sold-out theater where lucky ticket holders were taken to church with Erykah Badu and The Alchemist. It was the final show of their Abi & Alan Luv is… tour, which gave audiences the full experience of their upcoming album in full before its release on August 29.
As part of the exclusive, first-listen experience, phones were locked away in crossbody Yondr pouches. We were to be present and attentive and unable to leak any part of the show, no matter how much of a brag it would be to post about being in the same room as Erykah Badu, the Queen of Neo Soul.
And after witnessing Erykah Badu wax poetic with a live band (The Cannabinoids) and producer The Alchemist, and the lights gradually came back on, my brother, my plus one for the show, leaned over in awe and said what I was thinking: “What are you going to write?”
How does one capture the holy experience and magical collaboration of the pair? Those were Grammy award-winning producers and artists on stage that we all had the pleasure of watching.
The stage, with expert delivery, was set to replicate a living-room-turned-studio type of situation. Rugs were laid out, as well as a vinyl shelf with lava lamps and trinkets. It gave the allure of intimacy, as if the thousands of us in attendance were casually invited to this studio session or house party with a live band. Or like we were voyeurs, getting a peek into how these songs were made through their studio windows.
All the musicians wore black on stage, sitting or standing behind their instruments, which included keyboards, drums, laptops, and drum machines. A tall screen in the middle of the stage, which separated Badu and the Alchemist as if they were in their own rooms, flashed with the track titles of the songs being sung.
Their single off the anticipated album, “Next to You,” was played—and sounded notches more intense, groovy, and hype than it sounds on Apple Music. For one, both of them left their “rooms” to pace and energize the crowd from center stage. So apparent was their joy of doing this collab; how insanely happy they were to play this work of art for the tenth and final time before the album release.
Other tracks included “Apostle,” “Echos,” “Valentine,” and “Black Box,” a song emblematic of the woes and nuances of living in our phones. A catchy song titled “Witch Doctor” (or maybe it was “Witch Craft”? I can’t confirm, since the album track list isn’t public) called to attention the trouble with being brainwashed by the media, a talking point relevant in any decade. At one point, we were coming together to sing affirmations with a song called “I Know that Man.” We were healed at the Church of Badu.
The show was a music lover’s dream. And thank goodness there weren’t phones to obstruct views or distract us from the intimate show in front of us. Badu’s voice is as powerful as ever, and The Alchemist’s erudite construction of beats complemented the soul singer like a lighter to a joint.
The album will be out this Friday, August 29. Badu will start another tour, the Mama’s Gun Tour, in October, making a final stop in Dallas on December 10.