Shi Babe Show

There was nothing but soul, neo-soul that is, at Toronto’s Revival last Friday night as The Known Unknown and The Main Ingredient welcomed New York City’s duo Lion Babe and TO’s Shi Wisdom to the stage for the Shi Babe show.

The venue filled to capacity quickly with young music lovers and supporters, while DJ Lissa Monét spun the tracks. Revolutionary local emcee KJ started the night performing with a drummer and his Macbook and warmed up the crowd with his unique sound of hip-hop before New York City’s underground duo Lion Babe flew in to perform and left jaws on the floor with a sultry stage show. With a fishnet top and white moon boots, lead singer Jillian Hervey became a lioness onstage as she captivated the crowd with her unique voice and even more unique dance moves while performing the group’s single “Treat Me Like Fire”.

“This is Lion Babe’s first thing anywhere besides New York City so that’s really cool,” says Hervey. “Also, just to be on this lineup is nice, because we don’t generally get to play with people that have like-minded music.”

Even though the city showed love to the previous acts, it was obvious the crowd had come to see the city’s vocal queen, Shi Wisdom.

“It is an honour. It’s always an honour. I love performing in Toronto,” explains Shi, backstage before her set. “There’s always the misconception of the Screwface stuff, but I’ve never experienced that, I’ve never seen that from the people, so I’m always excited.”

Bloggers, DJs, photographers and friends squished together in the crowded venue to welcome Ms. Shi Wisdom to the stage. Her mother stood beaming front and centre.

“We as Canadians and we as Torontonians are blessed to have a voice like this woman,” announced Tika Simone into the microphone as she welcomed Shi Wisdom on the stage for her headlining performance.

Dressed in all black, sporting a head-piece and blue lips, Shi performed her singles “Penny”, “Easier”, “Bad Mood” and “Take The L” with her trademarked effortless technical range and intensely passionate vocals, but she also blessed her fans and supporters with new music such as a duet, “Lego Love”, with Wolf J McFarlane and a powerful ballad titled “Open”.

The crowd showed nothing but love, mesmerized and awed at the immense talent it was experiencing live from its hometown voice. Shi even returned to the stage and performed a passionate encore delivery of “Bedsheets” before once more thanking the crowd, singing her way off stage.