Djo • Post Animal • April 21, 2025 • The Complex
Reviewed and Photographed by Marlo Matamoros
Djo and Post Animal performed at The Complex for a sold-out show on the BACK ON YOU WORLD TOUR. The tour is set to hit major cities around the world such as Salt Lake City, Toronto, Brooklyn, Manchester, Stockholm, Paris, and Amsterdam. They performed here on a Tuesday night in the Rockwell at The Complex. Post Animal is a Chicago-based rock band that formed in 2014. Post Animal is releasing an album this coming July titled Iron. Djo is coming off his The Crux album which was released on April 4th of this year. Djo (Joe Keery) was a guitarist/vocalist for Post Animal before leaving to do Stranger Things. During the formation of the band Joe Keery and the group were roommates in Chicago.
Post Animal
Post Animal has four studio albums titled When I Think Of You In A Castle, Forward Motion Godyssey, Love Gibberish, and their fourth album set to release Iron. They started off the show with a song titled “Caving In” from their Worried about you EP. Songs such as “Setting Sun”, “Alabaster”, and “How Do You Feel” would follow. Throughout the set, they would ask if the venue was having a good time and thanking the fans for coming out.
Towards the end of their set, they would bring out Djo to perform “Last Goodbye” off their upcoming album. As Djo walked out I could hear and see the excitement from the fans. There were two fans who ran in front me of me screaming “WE CAN SEE HIM!” Djo would remain with the crew and finish the last songs with them before hitting intermission. Post Animal is set to headline their own tour later this year and has a date scheduled for Utah already. During the intermission, fans were eager for the setlist and expressed to security that they wanted Djo’s setlist as well.
Djo
I have been a fan of Djo (Joe Keery) since the release of Stranger Things in 2014. I was introduced to his music in 2022 with the release of DECIDE and one of his most popular songs “End of Beginning” which he would perform later that night. This song alone has over 1.4 billion streams on Spotify and blew up on platforms such as TikTok in 2024 leading to over 300,000 user-generated videos. You might recognize the lyrics “And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it / Another version of me, I was in it / I wave goodbye to the end of beginning.” Since the release of his latest album, he has reached over 21 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
The clock hit 9:15 and it was time for Djo to hit the stage. The two songs that he performed while I was in the pit were “Runner” and “Gloom.” Both of those songs happen to be the first songs off his DECIDE album and were a perfect way to start the set. The song “Link” would follow and then the first two songs off his recent album “Lonesome Is A State of Mind” and “Basic Being Basic” where the crowd really sang out loud and followed every lyric. Djo performed the next song “Figure You Out” on the piano followed by another popular song off his recent album “Delete Ya.”
After that song he thanked everyone for being there and spoke about how he didn’t think he would be on tour with his friends a year ago. He then commented on the beautiful Utah mountains and how the next song “Fly” was written by mountains. This was an intimate performance with the venue waving their phone flashlights. Djo would then perform one of my favorite songs off his recent album titled “Charlie’s Garden” which features a cameo from his Stranger Things costar Charlie Heaton. This song was inspired by them being backyard neighbors while filming the final season of the Stranger Things. I was curious to see if the crowd would have any reaction to the cameo and to my surprise the crowd cheered when the cameo played. The set would conclude with songs such as “Chateau (Feel Alright)”, another personal favorite “Potion”, and the very popular “End of Beginning”.
What an experience this concert was. It was a packed house from the opening set to the closing song. It was exciting to see all the Djo and Post Animal merch fill the venue. The energy in the room was positive all night and he filled the venue with fans of all ages. That is one thing I enjoy about concert photography is being able to enjoy the concert with many other fans who also enjoy the art of music. I was excited to listen to The Crux live and experience this album about his personal story and how your life is more than yourself. If you get a chance to see Djo live I would highly recommend it and a reminder that Post Animal will be back in Utah this coming December.
