Last night I got to check out H.E.R at the El Rey Theater in LA and let me tell you all, she is a spectacle. The sow was scheduled to start at 9PM so I arrived at around 8:45PM. The first act, Arin Ray, did not come on until around 9:20pm. I did not know of his music prior to the show, but he put on a solid performance. He connected with the crowd and I dug his verse that he created behind SZA's "Love Galore." His last song "We Ain't Homies" is a banger and can definitely see it blow up. His voice reminded of Bryson Tiller and I hope Ray continues to make good music.
After Arin Ray, Tiara Thomas came on. The minute she stood on the stage with her guitar, red lights and fog in the background, I thought to myself 'this girl has it." She opened her performance with a cover of Goldlink's "Crew." I also did not know of her prior to the show and she really got the crowd going. Thomas then performed another cover, Wale's "Bad" and a couple of her own songs. Based off of her own songs, her sound reminds me of H.E.R actually haha. Her presence is huge and she will go far.
Then came the last act, H.E.R at around 10:30 PM and mannnn was she a powerhouse. She opened with "Say It Again" and from there I was mesmerized. I was curious to how she would perform since she does not really show herself, but it is pretty much her eyes that are a mystery haha. I guess it is pretty cool to wear sunglasses all of the time haha. I loved the production of the show as well as her stage presence. I'm not gonna lie, I thought she was just going to stand there with a microphone with a DJ in the back playing the instrumental versions of her songs. I WAS WRONG.
H.E.R is mad talented as she played the piano, acoustic and electric guitar throughout the show. She had a drummer, DJ and two background singers (I thought the girl background singers glow in the dark nails were legit)While LA has a tough crowd, she brought her A game. The crowd went crazy when she performed "Best Part," a duet that she has with another new artist "Daniel Caesar" While the crowd assumed that he was going to show up, being in LA and what not, he did not,but little did we know she had another surprise for the crowd. Rising artist Khalid came out and did a surprise performance of his hit "Location" and got the crowd hyped.
(Khalid performing Location at El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, CA Nov. 25 2017)
H.E.R continued her set with "Focus," "Every Kind of Way," and an impressive mashup of Prince's "The Beautiful Ones," Rihanna's "Yeah I Said It" and Kendrick Lamar's "LOVE" She closed the show with "Changes," which is one of my favorites songs by her lol. The only flaw of the show that I had was the crowd. Once it got later into the show, no one was as hyped anymore, especially for a saturday night. Maybe because she did not come until 10:30 and people were tired? I don't know but H.E.R is here to stay. I really hope she does Coachella as the show was put on by Goldenvoice, the company that also puts on Coachella, haha.
I CANNOT wait to see what she has next. She is definitely an artist that I will continue to support and to be honest, she will be one of those artist for me that I will buy the physical copies of her albums and attend every tour that she does from here on out. I AM IN LOVE WITH H.E.R
(H.E.R performing at El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, CA Nov. 25 2017)