Hmmm. They are coming to BMO Stadium in LA (the venue next to the USC Coliseum) in November. Nosebleed seats are going for $30-40 on TickPick. I may actually go to this. I do need a show to go to in November.
Definitely go check it out then!
Sadly my long form youtube video from the Queen show got copyrighted and taken down. One strike to my channel. I'm pretty sure it's because I included music from either or all of Bohemian Rhapsody, We WIll Rock You, or We Are The Champions. I may re-upload it at a later date without basically the ending to the concert.
Anyway, last THursday after work I headed into NYC for a reggae concert. I had seen both SOJA and Hirie before, both as openers for Dirty Heads at seperate times and I liked both bands. I may not have gone if it was just one, but both, and I scored a ticket for about $18 (I had a $20 off coupon and they had a buy 1 get 1 free discount for which I sold my extra for $25). So pretty good deal for a show, and to no surprise given the discounts, the venue was half empty. Fine by me! Irving Plaza is not the best venue for being packed, it was quite refreshing to see a show there that had space.
The opener was Mihali who I was not familiar with. He's basically a solo artist I guess, but he did have a live sax player (apparently this was only for the NYC and Philly shows as the Sax player is a local friend or something). I didn't get any connection to his songs, but I did think he was onto something cool as a solo person. Every song he started using a drum machine and looping in the bass and guitar, one by one to get basically a backing song going and then he'd play more guitar and sing over it. With the sax seemingly just improving over the music. It was cool, but not really my thing from a song perspective.
Next was Hirie. I really loved their set. It's almost like a jazzy version of reggae. Just very smooth and moody. The female singer is super sexy too. She's got a sexy voice that's perfect for that smooth reggae, plus just her stage presence and the way she dances along with the backing band. Really fun set. I didn't know basically any of the songs besides their
newest single "I'm High" which I really like. The one guy on stage was playing so many different instruments, for that one, he played a flute! They also did a song with one of the singers from SOJA.
Another concert with an awesome community of people hanging outside in the smoking section as well. Love those between band moments when you chat with random like minded folk. Met a few people who live near me too, so random.
SOJA was also really good. I only have their newest album, but I was SO happy that they played Fall Like Rain (the last track on their newest album) because they didn't the first time I saw them and it's my favorite from them. The singer mentioned a song or two into the set that they weren't playing their most popular songs this tour, but their favorite songs. They then did their most popular which was very early in the set and usually their closer track. I haven't been able to find a set list for this show and since I only know a handful of songs, no idea if they went deep actually, but they also did another one of their new songs with Mihali (I didn't even realize he was on that track, but he is, so I guess I was familiar with him without realizing). SOJA also had just
released a new song with Hirie, so they did that one near the end of the set.
One thing I kept thinking about, this tour has a lot of band members between SOJA and Hirie. How the hell is this tour profitable to support all these people when the venue is only half full? I should also say, I didn't see ANYONE buying merch
I can't recall seeing the merch stands so empty. I might have bought an Hirie CD, they didn't have any.
SOJA, Hirie, & Mihali LIVE @ Irving Plaza New York City NY 10/19/2023