Dev Hynes is bringing his Blood Orange project back to solo stages for three straight nights at San Francisco's Warfield, opening a run that finds one of modern music's most sought-after collaborators stepping back into the spotlight on his own terms. The shows land at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at the Warfield, located at 982 Market St., and mark the tour's arrival in the Bay Area behind Blood Orange's first album in six years.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Hynes is supporting his fifth studio album as Blood Orange, *Essex Honey*, which was released August 29, 2025, and represents his return to solo touring after years spent largely behind the scenes writing and producing for other artists. Tickets for the Warfield engagement start at $100, per the same report. Hynes performs under the Blood Orange moniker, known for lush, atmospheric R&B that blends indie pop, electronic music and soul, and the Chronicle frames the run as a reintroduction of that sound to live audiences.
A Six-Year Wait Ends With Essex Honey
The album at the center of the tour, *Essex Honey*, arrived August 29, 2025, through RCA Records and Domino, according to The Fader. The 14-track record was written in the wake of his mother's death in 2023 and reflects on his childhood in Essex, England, while processing grief and memory, the outlet reports. Alongside contributions from Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar and Turnstile's Brendan Yates, the album also features literary author Zadie Smith making her singing debut on record, plus vocal appearances from actors Naomi Scott and Amandla Stenberg, The Fader notes.
Hynes has spent years as an in-demand collaborator, having produced or written for Lorde, Solange, FKA twigs and Sky Ferreira, per the Chronicle's reporting. That résumé, paired with a career that began far from R&B, helps explain why *Essex Honey* reads as such a personal turn. Before adopting the Blood Orange name in 2011 with debut album *Coastal Grooves*, Hynes started out as a teenager in the UK dance-punk band Test Icicles from 2004 to 2006, then released two singer-songwriter-oriented solo albums drawing from baroque pop and folk as Lightspeed Champion, according to AllMusic.
Beyond Music: Film Scores and a Broadway Debut
Hynes' work extends well past pop and R&B. He composed the film score for *The Invite*, directed by Olivia Wilde and premiered at SFFilm in San Francisco, and for *Queen & Slim*, the 2019 film directed by Melina Matsoukas, per the Chronicle. AllMusic's career overview adds *Palo Alto* in 2013 and Paul Schrader's 2023 thriller *Master Gardener* to his growing filmography, while Hynes also composed music for Luca Guadagnino's 2020 HBO series *We Are Who We Are*, contextualizing him as a sustained presence among auteur directors.
His range stretches into theater and classical music as well. Hynes made his Broadway composing debut in July 2024 writing the original score for the psychological thriller play *JOB*, directed by Michael Herwitz and starring Sydney Lemmon and Peter Friedman, according to Trill Magazine. He also earned a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Music or Small Ensemble Performance for *Fields*, an album of his classical compositions recorded by Third Coast Percussion, Ohio University notes in a profile of his career.
Momentum Into a Bay Area Residency
The road to the Warfield ran through some of the biggest stages in music. Hynes promoted *Essex Honey* as a supporting act on Lorde's Ultrasound World Tour and Turnstile's Never Enough Tour in late 2025, then performed with Blood Orange at Coachella in April 2026, according to Wikipedia's account of his touring history. That trajectory, from arena support slots to headlining runs, sets up the three-night Warfield stand as a homecoming of sorts for a solo act that had been dormant for years.
The Warfield itself carries a long history with multi-night residencies. The Mid-Market theater opened May 13, 1922, as a vaudeville hall and movie palace before becoming a roughly 2,250-capacity concert venue, according to the Warfield. It was converted into a concert hall in 1979, when promoter Bill Graham booked Bob Dylan for a 14-night stand opening his Gospel Tour, the venue's own history notes. Hynes' three consecutive nights fit that decades-old tradition of artists settling in for extended runs rather than a single show.
The article also touches on sustainability at the venue without detailing a specific program. It also turns to the broader concert scene around the venue.
