Mei Semones Makes St. Louis’s Delmar Hall a Dreamscape
On April 9th, 2026, Mei Semones and her frequent collaborator John Roseboro brought St. Louis a smooth show, captivating the audience with their fine-tuned musicianship. Semones’s set following Roseboro’s, the two filled Delmar Hall with their classical sounds, paying sonic homage to jazz and bossa greats like Jobim and Brubeck while keeping it fresh for their all-ages audience.
John Roseboro kicked off the night with a barebones set, just him and his guitar, holding the audience easily with his quiet certainty. It was a delight to hear his honeyed tone in person, just as, if not more, impressive than his satisfying studio recordings. The stripped-down opening set was a brave venture, and he pulled it off, whetting the audience’s palate seamlessly for Mei Semones’s set to follow.
The two also shared the stage for a spell, demonstrating their collaborative brilliance with a handful of suave duets.
Mei Semones hit the ground running, starting her set with tunes that tested the bounds of meter and genre. The full set was at once refined and playful, Semones’s crystal-clear soprano the icing on the cake. Many audience members danced and swayed, others bobbed their heads, and still others stood enraptured by the immersive sound of Mei Semones and her band. More than once did I spot a head shaking in disbelief at an unexpected rhythmic feat.
Speaking of her band, Semones performed with a unique lineup: a drummer, a bassist, and two stringsmen, each an unmistakable talent themselves. Semones made sure to feature each musician by name, and all four were indispensable to the robustness of her sound. Her set fused cool jazz, bossa nova, and present-day indie, all with the same reverence and intention with which she switched between English and Japanese in her lyrics. Mei Semones takes all kinds of interesting leaps with her sonic identity, making her music a journey and her live show a dream.
