Project Description

KALI UCHIS

@ Metro Theatre

11/01/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Georgia Dickinson

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When the lineup for the 2019 installation of FOMO Festival dropped September last year, one name that immediately had people buzzing was 24-year-old neo-soul fascination Kali Uchis. Born and bred in a Colombian-American household, Uchis found fame through her “genre-defying” 2014 debut mixtape Drunken Babble. From this mixtape and her 2015 EP Por Vida, she has gone on to work with some of the biggest names in modern music like Tyler, The Creator, Gorillaz and Snoop Dogg. And with fans lining up around the corner in the rain for her only headline show at Sydney’s Metro Theatre, expectations were already running high.

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Supporting Kali Uchis was DJ and music industry personality FlexMami, who immediately had the audience dancing with non-stop bangers. Whether it was Post Malone & Swae Lee’s Sunflower or Doja Cat’s Mooo!, the crowd lost their inhibitions and sung every word.

FlexMami’s personality oozed through Camila Cabello’s Havana and Lil Pump’s Gucci Gang as she used a paper fan to cool herself down. And by the time Travis Scott’s SICKO MODE blasted through the speaker, the venue was packed to the brim with people screaming the words and FlexMami bidding farewell, blowing kisses to the crowd.

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Kali Uchis enters the room with a golden microphone in hand. Laced in white, all eyes are on her as she begins to sing Dead To Me with the crowd as her backing vocalists. She wastes no time commanding every angle of the stage, seducing the crowd as she sings Tomorrow and a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. The crowd is nothing but accommodating for Uchis’ first Australian headline show. They go wild over a towel Uchis throws into the crowd, clap along to songs without command and hand her roses as she performs a variety of songs off her debut album Isolation.

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Uchis then slows it down halfway through her set with Melting and Loner from her 2015 EP Por Vida, as she holds a rose given to her prior. However, this seldom moment in Uchis’ set runs short as she immediately rolls into her recent single Just A Stranger, with the crowd crooning her during the chorus.

Energies continue to run high through Your Teeth In My Neck and Runnin Around, in which the latter involves Uchis adding lyrics like “Ridin’ around Sydney with the top down”, before settling down for one of Uchis’ “oldest songs” Killer.

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Uchis slides through Nuestro Planeta and Gotta Get Up and before long, the crowd is screaming Tyler, The Creator’s feature on Uchis’ biggest song to date, After The Storm, with Uchis’ backing band joining her in centre stage. And just as the captivating Colombian-American leaves the stage, the crowd is in a riot for one final song, given to us in the form of a stripped back Miami.

It’s easy to see as to why Kali Uchis has been making waves long before the release of her debut album. Her sultry music showcases a mix of modern neo-soul and her jazz-filled upbringing. Meanwhile, her eclectic stage presence only amplifies these qualities to flaunt the uniqueness that is Kali Uchis. From the enchantment of her first ever Australian headline show, there’s no doubt that Uchis will return to the country to play to much bigger crowds on her own.

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Check out more from Len Panecki‘s photo gallery HERE

Connect with KALI UCHIS

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

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AMNPLIFY – GD