A Chaotic Concert Experience

By: Ian Tan

A night of long lines, strict security and confusing staff turned Keshi’s concert in San Francisco into an experience fans won’t forget.

Attending concerts should be a fun, carefree night, and staff should work together to achieve this goal. But this is not what I had experienced at Keshi’s show. The show was on August 12th, 2025 at 8:00 pm in the Chase Center at San Francisco. Despite arriving 3 hours before the concert, it was still crowded. The highly popular zip-up jackets were already sold out by scalpers in the morning, reselling them for hundreds of profit. The concert was disorganized too, concertgoers, including me, were never notified of the wristband that we could have acquired for early access. This wristband was the key to skipping the long line. Oh well, nothing I could do about that. So I waited…

When the time came for me to pass security, the security guards told me I couldn’t bring my reusable water bottle inside. No warning. No signs. And then they kicked me out. I was saddened, hours of waiting in line just for me to lose my spot for a water bottle. Luckily, I had a friend who let me join them in line. When it was time for security the second time, I almost got kicked out again but because of my bag, Thankfully, it was just the right size to pass.

When I entered the stadium, I asked a worker about my ticket. For context, I bought a ticket named “Chase Cardmember Preferred Seating” and thought it meant better seating. They had no idea what it meant, so I had to stick with General Admissions.

When the show started, the crowd was met with two guest singers, Starfall and Roy Blair, which was not mentioned at all. It went on for about an hour, and the crowd was visibly bored, as people next to me pulled out their phones or started to talk amongst themselves. Finally, the star of the show, Keshi, appeared. The crowd cheered. We were all excited, but that would soon change.

The concert ended early. Some songs skipped from the setlist. Keshi announced he was sick. San Francisco had to go home early that night in the rain.

My thoughts after the show was that I thought that Keshi’s show was amazing, although the staff was a bit disorganized. His singing was great although he was still sick, the crowd could not even tell. The next day, San Diego’s show was cancelled, so San Francisco was lucky that we even saw him. Recently, since the zip-ups were so popular, Keshi has released them on his website which sold out in a day. Luckily, I was able to get it. Looking back, I thought that this concert was an unforgettable experience, in both good and bad ways.