Photo Credit: Andy Hall<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Review by Kathy Doan<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, August 19, R&B singer Kehlani took the stage at a sold-out show at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Doors opened at 5:30 p.m., and at 6:30 p.m., the first of the four opening acts started their set. Waseel started the night, followed by Dixson, Thearti$t, and Durand Bernarr. By the end of each opening set, the crowd got rowdier in excitement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At 8:45 p.m., the lights went out, and Kehlani\u2019s background dancers graced the stage. The stage set\u2019s backdrop reminded me of Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras house, where there was a cross-sectional view of different parts of Kehlani\u2019s \u201chouse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Kehlani then appeared on stage in her \u201croom,\u201d lying on a bed with magenta-colored bedding. When the smoke system faded and fans could see her more clearly, screams and cheers erupted through the venue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The singer started her show with \u201cAnotha Luva,\u201d a song from her latest self-titled album, which came out in late April of this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After the first few songs, she told the Boston crowd that the night before, she had a show in New York City. After the concert, she held an after-party at a nightclub. She stayed out until three in the morning, and because it was so late, she did not have a ride home.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI had to walk home, and arrived in Boston in my PJs,\u201d said the artist.<\/span><\/p>\n I completely believed her until she began her song, \u201cBack and Forth,\u201d and told us, \u201cLet\u2019s go back to the night before.\u201d I realized that it was a part of her bit.<\/span><\/p>\n After \u201cBack and Forth,\u201d a digital clock appeared on the screen and started at midnight.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, Kehlani played her hit song, \u201cHate the Club,\u201d and the backdrop set the stage as a nightclub called \u201cClub Phoenix.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After every song, an hour went by on the clock until the end of the show, when she played \u201cFootsteps,\u201d referencing how she walked back home to her Brooklyn apartment in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n I have been to more than 100 concerts in my life, and by far, I have not seen an artist put as much attention to detail into a performance as Kehlani did. Her stage presence was incredible the way her dance choreography captured the essence of her songs.<\/span><\/p>\n Halfway through the show, Kehlani asked the crowd, \u201cAre you guys sleepy heads? Y\u2019all are really relaxed. Can I challenge you guys? Can y\u2019all wake the f*ck up in here? I would like that very much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The audience respected her wishes and got up on their feet to dance. People around me clung to their partners as they swayed back and forth to the beat of the song.<\/span><\/p>\n The most thrilling part of the show was when she stepped off stage into the crowd and made her way to the bar on the right side of the music hall. She brought her dancers with her, who helped her perform \u201cAfter Hours.\u201d Some climbed onto the bar counter tops while holding bottles of booze so those who were further away could still see. The heavy bass of this song, as well as Kehlani\u2019s movement into the crowd, was a recipe for a memorable night.<\/span><\/p>\n The bartender\u2019s reaction was priceless. I could tell some of them were fans the way they sang the song back to Kehlani.<\/span><\/p>\n The one thing I did not expect from any artist who performed at MGM Music Hall was to say that it was the most intimate show of their tour. Kehlani mentioned how she loved being able to see everyone\u2019s faces and how she felt more at home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This took me by surprise because a sold-out show at MGM, like Kehlani\u2019s, has a capacity of 5,000 people! Looking at the rest of her tour dates, the other venues were mostly arenas, which made the most sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kehlani has been in the industry for over 10 years. She expressed gratitude and thanked the crowd for allowing her to do what she loves a whole decade later.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Credit: Andy Hall Review by Kathy Doan On Wednesday, August 19, R&B singer Kehlani took the stage at a sold-out show at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston.\u00a0 Doors opened at 5:30 p.m., and at 6:30 p.m., the first of the four opening acts started their set. Waseel started the night, followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26292,"featured_media":54468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[2751,1920],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54467"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54472,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54467\/revisions\/54472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}