Qveen Herby - The Mission Ballroom



An Angel Taking Flight



QVEEN HERBY



This is the first concert that I've been to in about a year and a half. It was a concert that I particularly wanted to go to as I'd been listening to the artist since I was a teenager. I've personally never really had that experience before; where I've wanted to see anyone in person performing. Maybe it's due to the fact that most of the artists I wanted to see had retired from touring or playing live by the time I was able to make any form of adult money.



Which finally brings me to the concert that I went to this past Saturday. Qveen Herby has such positive affirmations in her songs. The entire crowd was so lit up and excited while she was on stage. You could tell that she wasn't lip syncing by the inflections in her voice. The way she blended each song from multiple EP's and Albums of hers together was so beautiful. The timing of everything, the way she danced, the outfits, and all of the support from everyone working with her and her husband, SO AWESOME. I am so glad she is no longer held back from expressing herself and releasing whatever she wants by a record deal. So happy that her and her husband made the decision to release those first 3 EP's.



I started ugly crying when my best friend took my phone out of my hands, because I was so focused on recording her, and finally got to see how close that she was on stage. I am not the type of person who is starstruck when seeing celebrities or getting to speak with them. I genuinely do appreciate them for their work and I say the same things to the average person in my life; baristas, cooks, fashionistas, people who make really great videos online, etc. But when you've only ever been able to be a little bit of a fan of someone and could only support them by being a top listener on Youtube and Spotify or watching lives on instagram, or listening to a podcast that they start with their spouse..... and you finally get to witness and hear them in person? You cry.



Sometimes I think that we forget that the people we watch are real people. We are consumed so deeply in a world of deepfake AI sludge. Doom scrolling controls most of our daily lives. Qveen Herby came from a time where I was looking for female artists doing something different to inspire me on Youtube. When I was rummaging through artists like they were CD's in a garage sale. I'd known her as Karmin when she did Acapella, and much later, her first song on her solo project was released right after I'd graduated.



She produced a video introducing herself, and honestly thus far into my music listening experience, I just getting into female rap artists.



Thot Squad in her element

THOT SQUAD



And her opener, THOT SQUAD?



GIRL!



I love the feminine rage she introduces and had only ever encountered her in 2023 when I'd heard her song Pound Cake. I continuously was getting videos of hers in 2024 with her and Grandma in a ski mask, singing that song which was absolutely ICONIC.



The way she told stories between singing, and was so amazing with crowd work 🤌🏼👩🏽‍🍳💋. She is deeply funny, creative, and inspirational. Her wigs, her outfit changes, the diversity of music she sang? Honestly I haven't really seen a better opener, and I've been to quite a bit of concerts. This might just because most artists I've ever seen just walk around or stand in the same place because a lot of them are rock or EDM, but she was so awesome. There was a HUGE line to see her after the show.







About the Listener



I'm the type of girl who was raised on classic rock and country songs. It was a peculiar mix; being raised on the awkward boundary of the "mid-west" and the "west" of North America, and caught in between American and Pacific Island cultural values. I didn't understand a lick of Hawaiian and so I didn't really have any knowledge of what the songs my father played were saying (unless it was Earth Wind and Fire of course, or Journey). And once I was able to sit down at my first blocky white computer and have access to Youtube at about 8 years old, a whole new world opened up for me.



I wasn't really into the Hip Hop and Rap scene that my generation was suddenly bursting into. The sexual innuendos of the early 2000's causing me to plug my ear buds in and play the lion king CD that was stuck in my CD player, rather than torture myself any longer with "going to the candy shop" and being told that some strange older man would "let me lick" his "lollipop". Seriously why were parents and schools letting us listen to and dance to this stuff?! Not that I care that I'm older now and sometimes play the same music for a bit of nostalgia. However, it was really cringey that the favorite song of most 12 year olds I knew was, "Love the way you Lie", to the point they'd play it REPEATEDLY. This song is about an extremely toxic and abusive relationship mind you.



I feel that music leaves a rather lasting impression on most listeners, which is why it's very important to pay attention to what you are listening to consistently. For example if I'm listening to a song like "Love the way you Lie" every single day for hours, in a way I am subconsciously engraving that song into my inner beliefs. In the past Qveen Herby has spoken about this in her podcast episodes. Honestly I had to step back from a couple of my favorite artists because they were a bit too obscene for me. They often sang about death, sex, infidelity, being involved in gangs, harming others, harming oneself. While I understand an expression of art, this was putting me in a very terrible mental state.



It was affecting a lot of my emotional state as well, causing me severe bouts of anxiety. I was also consuming music abnormally compared to tother people. I had social anxiety to the point that I did not go outside, into a store, anywhere without my ear buds.



I listened to chillhop and jazz or the instrumentals for movies for a really long time before I began getting into artists again. Even some of Qveen Herby's earlier songs were hard for me to listen to for a while there. I had gotten into a lot of artists that I stopped listening to when I found her like Doja Cat, Jaira Burns, Olivia O'brien, KFlay, etc. I could tell a lot of things were happening in their lives and I needed to step away as a listener.



Things are a lot different now. I can choose more clearly what songs are better for me to listen to and not. I also put my noise cancelling ear buds in whenever someone is playing something that is a bit too toxic for me. I feel myself getting more positive and confident and am more capable of living in a world with less anxiety.



That's about all I have in me for writing today though. Please remember to support local artists and make sure you're paying attention to what you're consuming.



Don't forget to send a letter about what you thought if you've read so far.



Make every day brilliant -MB

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