Looking for LIVE Performance Tips? Here’s 5 Things Joe Could Teach You

International RnB sensation Joe Thomas was in Kenya just over two weeks ago, and what puzzles the rest of us is just how he does it. Most of what we consider the ‘young generation’ in Kenya, that is the born 80s, grew up to the soulful tunes of this seasoned artist, and one would think his music wouldn’t live on this long, but for anyone who attended the Tusker Lite with Joe concert at the Bomas of Kenya will paint a very different picture.

Throughout Joe’s performance, the over 2,000 strong crowd sang along, word-for word, to his hits timeless music. Then we ask, just what can we learn from Joe Thomas. Here are 5 things:

1. Command your LIVE performance

Joe might have given a performance of a little under 2 hours, but it was a memorable one. He connected with the crowd when he set foot on stage with more of his fast paced tunes and immediately sent the audience into a trance of musical and somewhat emotional enjoyment. 

2. It’s not always about the Quantity of your music, but the Quality

Joe may have performed most of his hits, but what stood out was the fact that each of his songs were not an endless babble of debauchery, but of meaningful emotions and feelings. He didn’t lip sync and his band was instrumentally on point as it backed him up adequately on the show.

3. Music about ‘love’ still trumps over what’s predominant in modern pop culture

There may be an obsession about ‘party anthems’ in Kenya, with a majority of local artistes looking to make hits that will get massive airplay in the clubs and on mainstream radio, but artistes like Joe have proved that’s not the only ingredient to a success recipe.

The musician’s music is a collection of mostly ‘love songs’, as most of Rythmn and Blues tends to be. However, the crowd that attended the Tusker Lite concert were not caught napping, singing along to his classics, as well as most of his more recent works off the album Signature.

Joe one-on-one? Find out here >>

4. Having an Album, instead of a series of singles, can help in more ways than one

It happens to be quite difficult to find local musicians who can boast of having produced a series of albums. Most will complain that the dynamics of the industry in Kenya don’t favour the album set up, but Gospel musicians seem to be doing it quite well, and successfully at that. Joe was not short of tracks to sing to the crowd at the Bomas of Kenya; each havign special significance to different points in his career.

Important to note is that first as an artist, you need to ‘feel’ your creation, then others will be moved by the same offering.

During a live performance, you won’t have to rely on belching out tunes to collabos and singles over a long period of time, but you will also have a broad choice of song from your (series of) albums. If a concert is of a single artiste, the audience expects you to be the prominent feature, and not a series of side shows.

5. Connect with your fans, but…

Joe was very personal as he sang on stage, shaking hands in the adoring audience, manouevering through the stage and singing tunes that his fans connected with. At the same time he knew his professional boundaries. There were a lot of ladies who followed him back stage, though he knew what he was there for and hastily exited the scene after his performance.