Emei at Brighton Music Hall in Boston, MA

By Lily Provencher

Emei sent Brighton Music Hall down the RABBITHOLE this weekend during the Boston stop on the North American leg of her tour.

Ashley Mehta was the first artist to take the Brighton stage. She jumped into her set with several original songs including her newest single “Kissing Isn’t Compromise” that recently released on February 28th. The solo R&B artist captured the crowd’s attention with her high emotion performance and fun crowd interaction. In-between songs Ashley joked with the crowd doing asmr gulps of water into her microphone and talking about her experiences growing up in San Francisco.

The audience sang along as Ashley performed a cover of “Bird of a Feather” off Billie Eilish’s album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Following up this cover Ashley finished out her set with four more original singles “Weekend” released in 2022, “Simmer” an unreleased song, Self Destruction Mode” from 2023, and finished her set with her song “I Wish I Didn’t Love You” released in 2023.

Setlist

Heat

Kissing isn’t compromise

Little Did I Know

Birds of a Feather – Billie Eilish

Weekend

Simmer

Self Destruction Mode

I Wish I Didn’t Love You

Ashley Mehta@ Brighton Music Hall | Photos By Lily Provencher

Haiden Henderson was next on the lineup. He jumped on stage and was running and dancing around through his first few songs. His immediate high energy had the crowd on their toes cheering and singing along to his first few songs “Hell of a good time” one of his top songs released in 2024 and “DUMP HIM” off of his 2022 album Good Grief!.

After a couple more high energy songs Haiden chose an audience member in the front row to highlight, introduce to the rest of the venue and then sing his next song to saying “I wrote this song for her” before jumping into an acoustic version of his song “Good Side” from his EP Lover Boy. After teaching the audience a call and response he continued with his acoustic guitar into “Bleachers” his 2024 single.

To introduce his next song Haiden started off “If you know anything about me you know I am sorta ironically but not ironically at all obsessed with twilight.” Is Boston team Edward or team Jacob? With a cheer off Haiden introduced his newest single “Lovesucker” released on February 28th.

To round out his high energy set Haiden asked the audience to close their eyes and image being “Two stories underground at a club, music loud and lights down” to introduce his final song “Sweat” that had the audience dancing and singing along.

Setlist

Hell of a good time

DUMP HIM

Teenage dream – Katie Perry

Sorry to your next ex

K.O.

Good Side

Bleachers

Lovesucker

Pretty little addict

Sweat

Haiden Henderson@ Brighton Music Hall | Photos By Lily Provencher

Anticipation grew in the crowd as Emei was set to take the stage. As the music faded her drummer Max and guitarist Rick took the stage. The pair started playing the introduction to “Cynical” before Emei took the stage jumping into the first verse of the song. She immediately lit up the stage jumping around as the lights strobed around her. The song off her 2023 album Scatterbrain had the crowd immediately singing and dancing along. Without leaving a second for the energy to dip Emei launched into “Love Me Not” a fun and bouncy single she released in 2024.

After a few more high energy originals Emei took a moment to introduce the set saying it feels like a “Low key hometown show even though I’m not from Boston it feels like it is so many familiar faces”. Her goal with this set was to bring both her new music but also continue performing her older stuff for the OG fans in the crowd.

“Maybe we have a really new song”

Sending the audience into a frenzy before performing her newest single released on February 26th, “Crazy Stupid Love”

Emei left the stage to sit in the audience for her next song “Ginger Tea” the audience pooled in circles around her as she performed this slower song in honor of her grandmother.

Surprising the audience Emei brought Haiden back on stage for a playful cover of “Baby” by Justin Bieber. The pair was dancing and jumping around the stage while the crowd screamed along.

The RABBITHOLE EP was different from her previous projects. Emei “treated the ep like a diary or journal and wrote the most vulnerable songs”. This theme comes through in songs “That Girl” and “9 Lives” the next two songs performed.

After several more original songs off of her album “Scatterbrain” the set finished with one of her most popular singles “Irresponsible” before the band left the stage to thunderous applause and cheers demanding an encore.

The band returned to stage to play an encore of two more songs. “RABBITHOLE” the title track of the EP and “Scatterbrain”. The energy never faltered during the hour and a half performance with Emei dancing and jumping around the stage.

Setlist