by Tammy Hua
Last week H.E.R. stopped by the West Coast during her recent tour to promote her recent album, Back of My Mind. SoCal fans filled Youtube Theater, located in Los Angeles, and H.E.R. and her openers provided the crowd with a night of stunning performances and great music.
Up first was Louisville-based R&B singer-songwriter, Marzz. Even with instrumental tracks, Marzz’s performance captivated the audience and had the women behind me constantly stating how much they wanted to buy her album after hearing her songs. For a couple of
songs, Marzz had her sister come up to accompany her and gave the crowd some nice acoustic performances, setting a relaxed atmosphere with chill music. Along with her amazing vocals, Marzz’s songs put her as a perfect opener for H.E.R. as both artists had a similar style and vibes in their music, even those same women stated that “she sounds like H.E.R.!”
Next up was the second opener, Tone Stith. If anything was clear, it was that this man was made to be a performer. With a live band, backup dancers, and upbeat songs, Stith came up and completely changed the tone of the venue with a high-energy performance. He showed
off his singing chops and impressive vocals and paired them with big dance numbers. He also worked his charm with the women in the crowd throughout his numbers and eventually asked if he could take his shirt off.
Finally, the main act of the night came up to the stage. With an amazing live band and strong group of backup singers, H.E.R. 's performances were nothing short of what the audience expected, purely amazing. She started off by running onto the stage singing a solo version of “WE GOING CRAZY” and killing it, of course. Once she came on stage the crowd was instantly hyped and audience members immediately jumped out of their seats to groove along. Afterward, the Grammy-winning artist performed a couple of fan-favorite hits like “Focus,” “Every Kind of Way,” “Comfortable,” and “Best Part” with the crowd singing along to each one. During “Best Part” one of her backup singers filled in for Daniel Caesar’s part of the song, and after introducing him to the crowd, H.E.R. revealed that the singer was in fact only 17 years old…wild. The songs then went to a more soulful route with her performing her popular cover of Foy Vance’s “Make it Rain” and her Academy Award-winning number “Fight For You” from the film, Judas and the Black Messiah, which is one of my favorite moments occurred where she casually asked the crowd “y'all know I have an Oscar right?”
After performing her songs the R&B singer took it up a notch and started doing a series of rock n’ roll covers, which came as an unexpected but pleasant surprise to us. She utilized the genre to show off her musicality and shredded her guitar during the set. It has become pretty common for H.E.R. to be compared to Prince in her style and skills as an instrumentalist, especially as a guitar player, so in a way, the rock music was fitting to her abilities and musical influence. As the concert came to an end, H.E.R. finished off her concert with a performance of her song “We Made It” with her starting off rolling onto the stage playing the drums. The song was a perfect ending number as it climaxed with a high-energy guitar solo with the band accompanying her. Overall H.E.R.’s concert was a night full of amazing music performances, soothing music, and immaculate vocals.