Asian Doll

9/25/19 Club Red Mesa – Best. Show. Ever. I’m a big fan of hers and tried to see two tours in the Bay Area but her headliners kept getting arrested prematurely ending the tours. So when she came out with her own tour I was disappointed no Nor Cal dates but bought a ticket to the first show. Unfortunately, when the time came I was deathly ill with fever and sore throat, but didn’t want to miss so I narc’d up and got on the plane to Phoenix (definitely don’t recommend getting on a plane with a throat swollen with fluid!).

Anyways, like I said, it was the first show of what I believe to be her first tour as a headliner. Have been to other ‘firsts’ that have been train-wrecks, so was hoping for the best but didn’t expect much. Boy was I wrong. Asian came out and immediately ROCKED THE HOUSE! Energy, presence, poise, polish, and fire from the first minute to the last. Have also been disappointed many times when the artist doesn’t play what I believe to be their signature songs (i.e. my faves) but she put me at ease right away by opening with “Southside”. In fact, she has a giant catalog, some of which are a little auto-tuney, but she stuck to hit after hit after hit of hard hitting, in-your-face jams that emphasize her strong voice and truly define her as the hardest female in the game.

The other thing that made this show different than most was that she really raps! All rap shows have voice tracks that they rap over. Unfortunately, many times the voice track is so loud its hard to tell when the artist is rapping or if you’re just hearing the voice track. This was the furthest on the other end of any show I have been to, meaning you could barely even hear the voice track at all. The incredible benefit is obviously that you hear her loudly and clearly when she raps, but also she takes many less lines off than just about any other artist I’ve seen.

On a personal note, she was incredibly graceful after the show meeting the fans and taking pictures. Seeing her work the room and her genuine love for the fans was a sight to behold. Loved her as an artist before the show, but wasn’t expecting such a great human being as well (there was more to that but won’t get into it here). Doubt this will continue as her crowds will quickly become too big to allow her to do this, but again, I thought it spoke volumes about her character.

Only downside about this particular show is that there was a much longer than usual wait between the last opener and Asian coming out. Laying on a bench with fever shivers drifting in and out of consciousness made this long interlude particularly painful, and of course inevitable thoughts of the time Cuban Doll pulled a complete no-show didn’t help, but in the end she came out and was so good it was all worth it! Obviously, if you get a chance to see her I would highly recommend it!