From Glasgow to Houston, Keshi has finished the first leg of his HELL & BACK tour with a bang in his home state of Texas. 

I saw him perform at the South Side Ballroom in Dallas, TX where he stood in the middle of the stage and poured his heart as his fans filled the venue to sing along with him. This was my second time seeing him perform and this tour was like a victory lap for him, even if the singer was sick and couldn’t perform like he normally would. 

The HELL & BACK tour included European tour dates as Keshi started this tour just weeks after finishing the Asia leg of his HELL/HEAVEN tour. Over the past few years. Keshi has garnered a lot of attention from international fans and has continued to sell out shows even after a year of shows. 

The soundcheck experience didn’t differ too much from the first tour as he played both “WESTSIDE” and “SOMEBODY” at the first tour, but the addition to “B.Y.S.” was welcomed wholeheartedly as this was one of the most popular releases from his “always” EP and was not performed on the last tour. 

After the openers, the first notes of his 2019 track “blue” resounded throughout the venue as the crowd roared to life. Followed by his band. Keshi made his way to the center stage with a huge LED screen shining behind him for the people in the back to see him. Fans jumped, swayed and sang to songs like “GET IT”, “LESS OF YOU” and “BESIDE YOU”. 

The energy in the room was tangible as this was the second to last show of the tour, in Keshi’s home state where so many people lined the street to see him perform. While plenty of people tried to get as close as possible to the stage Keshi always dialed it down with talk breaks and songs like “drunk” and “skeletons”, songs that are more mellowed out and involve more crowd control than the rest of his setlist. 

For the majority of the shows, Keshi added his new unreleased song “Kiss Me Right” to the setlist but did not play it at the Dallas stop for some reason. But, he quickly made it up with the additions of “like i need you” and “i swear i’ll never leave again”, songs that have not been played live since the release of his 2018 EP, “THE REAPER”. He also performed a newer version of his song “atlas” from his “skeletons” EP, this version playing more like a ballad rather than an R&B track. 

Keshi closed out his set with “LIMBO”, “ANGEL” and “GABRIEL” which also ended his setlist last tour but were still greatly appreciated as they prepared the crowd for his encore of “2 soon”, another song from his 2018 EP. Once the show was over and everyone had collected their pieces of confetti off the venue floor, the crowd made their way out of the venue (or maybe waited in the longest merch line I had ever seen).  

The best song of the whole performance would have to go to “TOUCH” though. As someone who has been following Keshi since 2018, the release of this song was monumental for him as this song became very popular very quickly and earned him a lot of attention internationally. This love song stands out against the rest of his discography as the writing shows the maturity of Keshi as an artist and shows how refined his production skills have gotten. 

In the past few years, Keshi has grown so much as an artist from selling out clubs to selling out the concert halls on the other side of the world. The thrill of seeing his rise to fame is so satisfying because he’s only just getting started and everyone should be ready to see what he has to offer.