On Saturday, November 30th, I went to Fousheé’s concert in San Francisco at The Independent. From the moment I walked in, the vibes were on point. The theatre had an ambiance with nice overhead lighting and a bar with a wide range of cocktails. The crowd was a good size filling the whole room without being packed like sardines, with a lot of young people. Opening for Fousheé was DJ Hu Dat, who mixed without headphones completely off the cuff. She had the crowd bumping the whole time with a combo of reggae and some pop, which started the show off nicely.
Soon after, Fousheé came onto the stage accompanied by her band. Wearing fringed leather gloves and knee-high boots, she was rocking with her guitar. She prefaced the show by reminding her audience that “This is my first solo tour.” Despite being new to the solo game, she killed it. Playing songs from her new album Pointy Heights opening with the reggae fusion track, “birds, bees.” Her whole set was very diverse in genre and sound, this kept the crowd on their toes, but always moving. She played some other tracks from her new album, notably “War” and “Flowers” which had the whole crowd singing along. Two or three times throughout the show, she would rush backstage and an interlude would play. These interludes gave some context into where she gets her inspiration. Her mother hailed from Jamaica, so reggae music has always been a big influence for her. She was also influenced by the punk rock movement. This became clear when she put down the guitar and sang “stupid bitch,” a song with very grungy guitar and angry lyrics. The whole crowd went crazy and Fousheé started crowd surfing. When they put her down, she started a mosh pit in the audience. The vibes were electric.This song hails from her 2022 album, softCORE, from which she played a couple other songs including “let u back in.”” All too soon, her set came to a close with her single “sing about love,” but the people were not done yet.
What happened next was truly special. The crowd roared and screamed for five straight minutes until she and her band got back up on stage for an encore. She asked an audience member in the front what song they wanted, so she played “candy grapes.” She was singing the song for about a minute when suddenly a guest jumped up on stage. It was Steve Lacy, who came out of the shadows and finished the song with her. The crowd went insane as he said “I wasn’t supposed to come out here tonight” and then swept Fousheé off stage with him as he left. This was a truly special treat for the audience. Fousheé said that this was her favorite show, and as an audience member, it sure felt like a pretty outstanding performance.
Review and photography by Braeden Wilcox
