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Review & setlist: Brent Faiyaz energizes the crowd at MGM at Fenway
R&B artist Brent Faiyaz performed in Boston on Wednesday night.
Brent Faiyaz at MGM Music Hall, Wednesday, Aug. 9
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If there’s one thing that can be said for Brent Faiyaz, it’s that he has a loyal following.
Fans packed the sold-out, 5,509-seat MGM Music Hall at Fenway Wednesday night, ready to belt out their favorite lyrics at the top of their lungs. The crowd knew every word, and sang with intensity throughout the hour-long show. They chanted “we want Brent” minutes before he took the stage. Many preferred to stand up and engage with the performance, rather than sit once he arrived.
It’s that energy, and his connection with the crowd, that makes a Faiyaz show an interesting pick for R&B fans.
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Faiyaz can sing. He stayed on-key and hit his notes. His voice rang clear, and sounded like it does on his recordings. For most of the night, he had a simple set-up: Just him, a barstool, a microphone, a bottle of water, and two big square displays with a band sitting behind them.
Dressed in all black from his sunglasses to his hoodie and his jeans, Faiyaz swaggered about the stage, occasionally crossing his arms and pausing to let the crowd fill in the lyrics. He pointed to the crowd during key moments, and even worked a bit of sarcasm into his lyrics.
“Reality is turned off, who the [expletive] knows?” Faiyaz said during his rendition of “Loose Change” “I just make songs, who am I to tell us how this [expletive] goes?”
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The noise was intense from start to finish, but the loudest moment of the night was when he leaned the microphone forward, rocked back, and settled into his 2022 hit “All Mine.”
“We both still young, so what’s the rush?” Faiyaz sang. “The night is young and we not drunk enough. You come around if I don’t do too much. We had our downs but we had way more ups.”
“Jackie Brown” was another standout song from the show. With the display squares flashing red, orange, and white behind him, Faiyaz led the crowd through the catchy hit.
The lyrics drip with bravado as Faiyaz brags about a pair of ex-girlfriends that supposedly look like actress Halle Berry and Jackie Brown, the character Pam Grier plays in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino movie of the same name. But they also show a hint of vulnerability and a fear of committing to one girl.
“My new [expletive] look like Halle Berry,” Faiyaz sang. “But she don’t love me, she too scary. My old [expletive] fine like Jackie Brown. I don’t wanna love her, she too down. Will you be my leading lady? I want a contract, girl, no maybe. In the meantime (I guess I’m doing what I want). Get some me-time (hope you doing what you want).”
One small point of contention with the show is that because of how loud and engaged the fans were, it was tough to hear Faiyaz over their voices at times. It’s a communal experience for his loyal fans, who already know the lyrics and get to feel what it’s like to sing them along with thousands of people.
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But for more causal observers who aren’t as familiar with the lyrics, it can be tough to discern exactly what he’s saying.
Still, it was an entertaining show overall. An hour felt like just the right amount of time for his set, and it’s pretty thrilling to see a performer get the kind of crowd reactions that Faiyaz does.
That alone makes the show a solid one.
Setlist for Brent Faiyaz at MGM Music Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023
- Villain’s Theme
- Loose Change
- Clouded
- Been Away/What you heard [20 secs]
- FYTB [short version]
- FTW
- Heal Your Heart
- All Mine
- Gravity
- Jackie Brown
- Price of Fame
- Rolling Stone
- Rehab
- Bad Luck
- Posion
- Role Model
- Trust
- Fell In Love
- Lost Souls
- Dead Man Walking
- Wasting Time (no Drake verse)
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