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The hauntingly romantic and aching “Somewhere In Between” was carried into musical expression on a Thursday night on The Tonight Show, where Devonté Hynes, a.k.a. Blood Orange, used the almost starkness of the acoustic setup and his impassioned delivery as a general example of musical intensity on the late-night series. This performance took the audience on a brief detour into his new material.
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Preparation was underway for something very different. Not your usual high-energy late-night number but somewhat more reflective. Taking the stage as Blood Orange, Devonté Hynes played his serenely ominous “Somewhere In Between” for the Jimmy Fallon crowd. That very multi-layered tonality was recorded by The Tonight Show’s account: a blend of R&B, electronica, and pure soul that somehow manages to sound both intimate and vast.
Looking at the few transcribed lyrics that sporadically appeared on the screen, we could know about the actual core of the piece. Lines such as “Lies stressful hope and it keeps me going” and “I just need to see again” imply that the narrative is wrestling with uncertainty and seeking clarity. This kind of raw, emotional texture is an element running through most of Hynes’s offerings. He builds whole moods, and this was no exception.
There was a near-instant wave of adulation from viewers who were lucky enough to see the clip. Longtime fan of his work wrote, “I ♥️ Blood Orange/Dev Hynes,” with lightning bolt emojis to describe the electricity he creates somehow through his music-the sort of invested fandom that Hynes has created for himself through years of genre-bending albums and collaborations.
Another viewer relates his feelings to the atmosphere of the performance: “This is the place ❤️,” referring not so much to an actual place so much as to that mental space his music can conjure-a spot created and experienced exclusively by the fans.
Many exciting things were going on in this episode besides Dev’s moment. An enthused commenter wrote with relish about the line-up: “THIS EPISODD IS GOLD?! Dev, Druski and Doja!?” Late-night shows are that finely curated blend, and Hynes’s artistic moment did serve as a serious and soulful counterpoint to that comedy and others.
The show began reminding its followers to catch the full performance on their YouTube channel, so the moment would not be confined to the day it aired.
After that, the comment section finished working all its way down the road map toward absolute mucking-about. One person that posted tried to hijack the thread of comments by dropping in a link with a headline having nothing to do with the political news story at hand. These are sights common on popular venues where all manner of discussions converge.
Long favored by critics, Devonté Hynes has smoothly transitioned from composing to film scoring for others to always keeping at least one own set of projects alive under the name Blood Orange. Just a brief performance on a major platform such as The Tonight Show fairly stood for the very life of the refined sound coming forth from his camp into millions of homes. That he remains relevant unto the present time is attested to by the fact that Hynes does not have to own that stage in spectacle, but simply in feeling through music.
In the midst of many loud and bright moments, Hynes carved out a nook of quiet intensity for himself during post-prime hours TV. This was a moment that required applause but demanded reflection; from what was seen, this was just what people started doing.
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The performance reminded many of Machine Gun Kelly‘s recent appearance on the same stage. Another memorable musical moment came from Riley Duckman, who brought his own unique energy to the show. The episode also featured Fred Armisen demonstrating his comedic talents.