New York City's Own Yaya Bey at Elsewhere
A new generation carrying the traditions of soul and R&B and making it their own
Event Details:
Date: May 23, 2024
Venue: Elsewhere (Brooklyn)
Ticket Price: $40.79
Artist: Yaya Bey w/ Saint Mela
Completely exhausted after work, I almost didn’t think I was going to make the show but the long weekend coming up helped motivate me through the fatigue. I felt like I needed to diversify the shows a little bit and noticed that Yaya Bey was going to be about to go on tour and playing at Elsewhere in Bushwick. The bill had two artists I had never heard of and I arrived to a DJ set, so I was immediately thinking this could a long night. No offense to DJs but not my thing.
The “real” opener was a local group from NYC, Saint Mela, and the vibe was kind of an electronic-based soul and R&B. The real rhythm and blues, like Nina Simone, Etta James or more recently Amy Winehouse. The lead singer had a few hiccups with one of her mikes but it was quickly resolved and everything started coming together. One of the newer trends with some R&B singers is to heavily saturate their voice with effects, which can quickly sound like absolute dog shit if overdone but the group tonight had a nice balance. They consisted of two guys mostly playing synths and a drummer, which I personally think made a huge difference by adding a nice human element to their electronic melodies. I really enjoyed their set and will be doing a deeper dive into their music.
Next up was Yaya Bey, a Queens native that has slowly started making a rise with her recent albums Remember Your North Star (2022) and Ten Fold (2024). She had a full band with her, made up of bass, keys, saxophone and drums, which sounded great! Yaya Bey’s music is a mix of similar R&B roots to the opener but with more hip-hop verses. When she came on stage she looked incredible and the hometown crowd gave her a huge cheer. You could tell she was a little nervous but her voice was on point and everyone was grooving to the music.
She played for about an hour and covered a good number of tracks from her new album, including “Eric Adams in the Club” when she got nearly everyone in the joint to yell “FUCK ERIC ADAMS!” to show our love for the great Mayor of NYC. I think she got a little too hyped during that song and had to take an extended breather before the next one. I imagine you eventually get in “tour shape” so hopefully it only takes a couple of shows before she’s feeling good and can maximize her performance for a full set.
She kept mentioning how hot she was and was worried that her weave was going to get messed up from all the sweat; it was a hot mess but she had a great sense of humor and humility about it. As I said, I think she looked great and I have a new level of respect for her music. I still don’t understand why people go to concerts if they are going to talk the whole time but one day I’ll try to accept that some people just suck. This is currently the last show of the month, though I wouldn’t be surprised if I end at another one in the next seven days, but all-in-all it has been a solid month of concerts.
Cheers and keep rocking!