Image from Creative Commons
Kali Uchis performing
Thee Sacred Souls opened Kali Uchis’ Raleigh show at the Lenovo Center on Monday, Sept. 8. I missed the beginning of their performance because I was standing in the merch line, but I was able to watch a good amount of their opening set.
Before going to the concert, I hadn’t heard any of their songs — not even their popular ones. I’m not a big fan of Thee Sacred Souls’ musical genre — R&B and Soul — but they still put on a great show.
Thee Sacred Souls’ vocalist Joshua Lane was running around a good amount of the sections in the arena… but completely skipped over the side of the arena I was in. Though, he had a lot of energy and hyped up the crowd before the concert.
In all honesty, the merch was so expensive. One hoodie was $125, and I can confirm: it was not purchased by me. Instead, I bought a thin $45 shirt and a $25 tote, which was the same way. She was also selling stuff from her “Homebody by Uchis” brand. All of the merch was really cute and I wish I could’ve bought more.
Kali Uchis came on exactly at 9 p.m. and opened her set with “Heaven is a Home…” While singing, she was hanging from a swing and looked so ethereal. Then, her following nine songs were from her “Sincerely,” album, like “Sunshine & Rain…” and “Sugar! Honey! Love!”
I listened to the album for the first time a few days before the concert, and I felt isolated because I wasn’t singing along with everyone else. Even without knowing the lyrics, I had so much fun and didn’t feel bored during this part of the set.
Once she finished with that part, she played a video about her journey as a Colombian immigrant and the struggles many Latinos and immigrants face in the United States. The video was beautiful and really resonated with me. She spoke in both English and Spanish. She didn’t have captions when she was speaking in English, and I couldn’t hear anything, but the video was enough to make up for it.
I was in tears by the end of the video, but then was forced to lock in when a voice said, “I didn’t ask to be born Latina, no más tuve suerte,” and “Muñekita” from her 2024 “ORQUÍDEAS” album began.
Kali and her dancers worked together to tell a story with each song that played. Without them, I don’t think the show would have been as energetic and lively as it was. One thing that would have also helped the energy would have been more outfit changes. She started with the cutest pink outfit and then switched to a black one, and didn’t change for the rest of the night.
About halfway through her concert, she told everyone that she was going to be performing a lot of her old songs and pulled through. I really liked that she started with singing all of the songs from her most recent album and then only sang her older songs. She mixed all of the genres, so there was never a dull moment during the concert.
She ended the show with “Moonlight.” She then came back to perform her newly released song, “Cry about it!” After the song, she started signing people’s stuff who were on the floor – including someone else named Alondra. It should’ve been me.
My favorite song of the night was “Labios Mordidos,” because I’m basic and “ORQUÍDEAS” is my favorite album by it was the most impactful album I ever listened to. Hearing many of from “ORQUÍDEAS” live was something I’ve always wanted to do since the album came out, and she didn’t tour it last year.
Although she doesn’t have a lot of loud songs, I’m so glad I wore my earplugs because everyone in that arena – me included – was yelling during the entire show. The vibes were so good, and I really liked that everyone had matching or cohesive outfits with Kali’s pink branding.
Overall, I ended the night satisfied with another dream-concert checked off my list. Kali Uchis put on a great performance, and I felt like she truly wanted to be there. Although this was only the fourth artists’ concert I’ve been to, it’s in my top two, and I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to go.