DANIEL CAESAR’S
Back-to-Back Nights at
Toronto’s Budweiser Stage
BY ANDREW KING
26 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
A
“CASE STUDY”
in Upscaling
Shortly after dropping his widely-
acclaimed debut LP, Freudian, Daniel
Caesar took over Toronto’s Danforth
Music Hall in December 2017 for a
series of five consecutive homecom-
ing shows. Every one of them was
a sell-out, packing the venue to its
1,500-person capacity and generating
even more hype for one of the city’s
most talented and talked-about
musical exports.
In the short time since, the
velvet-voiced R&B phenom has main-
tained his impressive trajectory with
increasingly bigger shows through-
out North America – including a slot
at Coachella in 2018 – plus some
high-profile collabs with the likes of
Jessie Reyez and Free Nationals and a
few new tracks of his own.
Then, on June 28, 2019, Caesar
seemingly came out of nowhere with
his follow-up full-length, CASE STUDY
01, which only served to further pro-
pel his profile around the world. While
centred on a similar, albeit more di-
verse and evolved sonic character to
its predecessor, the 10-track effort hits
new highs and boasts an impressive
guest list in terms of pure star power,
including the likes of Pharrell, Brandy,
John Mayer, and fellow GTA ambassa-
dor Sean Leon.
It was only fitting, then, that
Caesar’s subsequent Toronto per-
formances would come with higher
stakes and – literally – a higher stage.
This time, in late September
2019, the gifted, somewhat enig-
matic performer headlined a pair of
dates at Budweiser Stage, packing
the longstanding amphitheatre to
its full 16,000-patron capacity on the
first night. That marked a wholly new
milestone for the artist and his crew,
which adapted a show and produc-
tion package typically staged in clubs
and theatres for its biggest iteration
yet in a headlining scenario.
Professional Sound recently
caught up with FOH Engineer Cam-
eron McLellan, Monitor Engineer and
Tour Manager Mike Rowland, and
Production Manager Karen “Keeks”
Weigold to talk about the experience.