Keshi is embracing his role as a hitmaker, doing back-to-back years at 88Rising’s Head in the Clouds festival and boosting his profile after releasing his sophomore album Requiem. A former Texas Medical Center oncology nurse in Houston, he’s the superstar quietly getting bigger, surpassing seven million monthly listeners on Spotify. H-Town gave their hometown hero so much love last night that the question remained: Can Dallas top Houston?
That was the theme of the night at The Bomb Factory. By the time we got there, a bit after 8 p.m., fans were still walking up to buy $80 general admission tickets as the doors opened. Once inside, there was a long line for merch, consisting of Requiem tour tees, tote bags, hats, keychains and a vinyl that sold for $50. Keshi fans crowded the stage for Starfall and Mac Ayres, who kicked off the show.
Ayres performed songs from his album Drive Slow. Ayres told the crowd this was his last stop on the tour, thanking Keshi for taking him around the world, praising his guitar playing skills and for being a good guy. By this point, people had shown up for Keshi and began chanting his name before his arrival. It was visibly packed, a younger crowd with trendy looks that filled up the standing room only space while older folks sat in the back where the tables were for a wider view.
Here’s the thing with Keshi: He’s a highly streamable artist making pop, hip-hop, alt R&B and lo-fi who pushes himself outside his comfort zone often. "The thing with me is, you're never going to get an album that sounds homogenous," he told Grammy.com. "I'm a very proud musician, and I want to be able to showcase that I can make a lot of different types of songs." His music is an easy listen where you can throw on and let his album play with no skips.
Because of this, Keshi’s Requiem tracks flowed seamlessly from one to another, linking so tightly that songs blended together. He’s evolved with his stage production, with colorful visualizers to match the moods of the songs and a full band to back him. He started off with “Amen,” “Say” and “Night,” his honeyed vocals and emotional lyrics about God and love sounding fantastic.
“Dallas, Texas, good to fucking see you,” Keshi said. “Y’all don’t know how much I miss being in the South. Thank you all, so, so much.”
Keshi kept asking if Dallas could top Houston and fans took him up on the challenge by singing word for word. “Kiss Me Right,” “Like That” and “The Reaper” felt like everyone was doing Keshi karaoke with him, eliciting a “very good Dallas” from the Vietnamese-American star.
After more bangers like “Like I Need You” and “Beside You,” Keshi previewed his new song “Wantchu” that’s dropping on Friday, Aug. 8. He’s been performing “Wantchu” at previous tour stops, a pure R&B love song that’ll melt hearts soon. The reaction to his new single is positive, judging by their excitement and how many people already know the words.
WANTCHU - FRIDAY 8/8 pic.twitter.com/7hKDXw0hxV
— keshi (@keshimusic) August 5, 2025
The Keshi fandom may have similarities to K-pop fans, but this is entirely a group he’s nurtured and connected with on his own. One person in the crowd brought a conical hat you typically wear in rice fields, which Keshi instructed to pass towards the stage. You never know with fan behavior these days, but Keshi played along. “I'm fucking proud of my heritage motherfucker,” he says. “My family is from Vietnam, but I'm American. Born and raised. I'm from fucking Texas.”
Keshi asked how many people came here with someone, probably noticing the many people who were standing together in close proximity, holding hands. “Dallas fucks!” he joked. Then he asked if people came here by themselves. “I’m sorry, this song is not for you,” he says, launching into “Soft Spot.”.@keshimusic noticed someone with a rice hat and threw it on mid-performance in Dallas. “I’m fucking proud of my heritage motherfucker!” #RequiemWorldTour pic.twitter.com/zju3pUuVGD
— Eric Diep (@E_Diep) August 6, 2025
He wasn’t going to leave the Lone Star State without performing “Texas,” a song he says was just for Dallas. He provided fan service by performing older Keshi songs like “Summer,” “Inside Out” and “Forever.” He told fans not to record this portion, explaining he wrote this song about “being in this moment forever” with them.
In between Keshi’s guitar changes, we noticed many people slow dancing to his songs, pulling up his lyrics on their phones to sing along and screaming in joy. For an artist who doesn’t claim to be an idol, he has tons of people fawning over him. Then again, Keshi is the type to not stick to one artistic identity, building off his acoustic, stripped-down performances to the Post Malone meets John Mayer meets Justin Bieber type of grand setlist we’re witnessing now. We called him a “Gen Z icon” last year, an accurate description if he continues evolving to capture the mainstream.
Once again, he asked if Dallas could beat Houston in our noise level, and it got reasonably loud. He did “Drunk,” a song based on a drunken walk home on 6th Street in Austin, and felt emotional hearing thousands of people sing this song to him. As more Keshi chants poured onto him and he performed more of his big hits to take us home around 11 p.m., he announced “Euphoria” was his last song of the night, prompting fans to get an early jump on buying merch before heading out the door.
The evening got us thinking about who Keshi’s music is exactly for. He has songs for sad people (“Just to Die”), people in toxic relationships (“War”) and lonely people (“Bodies”). His lyrics are meant to cut beneath the surface and help you relate to the struggles he has faced, too.
But there’s a part of us who is torn between Keshi from his DIY days to Keshi, the pop artist. Has he lost his identity after dealing with the loss of his friend, trying to do too much? Is his performance not dynamic enough to hold our attention? Do his songs stick out at all? Or are millions of streams enough to justify two hours?
We’re being nitpicky. There’s the other argument that Keshi gets love for evolving and experimenting with a sound he's still developing, shreds a guitar like no other Asian American artist has before and can do two hours because he has the catalogue to back it up. The Keshi of today won’t be like the Keshi of tomorrow. Maybe this is just part of the journey, finding himself.
