Kwesi K’s Farewell Show @ Boot & Saddle.

Text and images by Darragh Dandurand.

Kwesi K ran around the venue space of Boot and Saddle in the minutes before his last show in Philadelphia on Saturday. He plans to leave in a month with hopes of making it in Los Angeles. He was shaking hands, giving hugs and getting ready to say goodbye.

After performances by Cookie Rabinowitz and Elegant Animals, Kwesi bound up to the stage and cupped the microphone in his hands and thanked everyone who came out for the performance. An uproar of applause met his remark as he set into songs from Pronouns, Lovely and Ran Away From Me.

Colorful lights splashed across the stage turning Kwesi‘s five-man live band every hue of moody greens, blues, purples and reds. The space was packed with little room to dance or move but the audience stayed put throughout the whole set. Few left to even refill drinks while more people edged towards the stage.

Kwesi shook back and forth while he sang or his guitarist ripped away during instrumental solos. Infectious rhythms and soulful folk melodies intertwined as the solo artist pulled from every genre he knew. Every so often, great grins would grace Kwesi‘s face when the audience sang back a line or two of one of his songs.

With shouts for an encore, Kwesi closed out his energetic last performance in the city that has shown him so much brotherly love with “Whiskey Wit.” He sang the song in earnest, looking away from the mic on occasion to let the lyrics flutter from his mouth. Everything about the night seemed nostalgic, removed from a busy Broad Street right outside the front door.