Mura Masa concert review - April 20th, 2023 at 1015 Folsom, San Francisco CA, United States

i still don't understand the point of the dog bowls here

We left for the event at like 10:30pm. The doors opened at 9pm so I figured it’d be like troyboi where the main act wouldn’t go on until like midnight. I assumed that, getting there almost 2hrs after doors, there would be no line to get in and mura would go on shortly after. So when we got there at damn near 11pm, we were super surprised to find that there was still a line wrapping around the corner! Perhaps the venue purposely paused entry so that a line would form, making the event look enticing for people who’ve yet to get tickets, cause the show was def not sold out. Any fucking ways, I wasn’t trippin too hard cause the line started moving fast by the time we got there and there wasn’t any of that ocean mist in the air so my silk press actually lasted throughout the night xD

Sooo were inside and the décor is pretty cool as per usual for 1015 – some cool photo ops, a photo booth (peep the pics), cool strobe lights, the usual cool stuff. The crowd is more homogenous than the crowd for troyboi but what do you expect for a white indie-electronic dj in sf. I mention the demographic because.. well just keep reading, it’ll make sense.

one of the many interesting photo-ops

So we’re drinking and smoking and just walking around and enjoying the music. The opener’s sounds were a little fast-paced and 4-on-the-floor for nemos taste, but I was sure that once mura went on, the sounds would get a lot more dynamic. It was past midnight and I was wondering when he would come on. I assumed that once he took the stage, it would be very obvious because people would be screaming and flocking to the viewing area like they always do. There were actually people dancing on the stage area where troyboi (and others) had performed their sets from so I was wondering, are they gonna move those people for mura’s set or are they vip orrr?

Well, it turns out that mura had been performing for the past 15 minutes and I had no fucking clue xD. They had changed the location of the stage and the whole stage setup was so lowkey, I could only tell where he was because nemo pointed him out, and then I finally saw the dim screen with visuals behind him. There was no uproar from the crowd when he took the stage and half the crowd wasn’t even oriented toward where he was performing. It was so confusing for me lol. I mean I guess, thinking back, maybe they were going for more of a club vibe than a concert vibe, but if I wanted to go to a simple club I would just go there. I paid to see mura masa because of their sounds, so I wish there was more of a focus on that.

ya ever tried to work a photo booth when you're drunk af :D

When I say “more of a focus,” I mean I HATEE when I see a beat maker that I like and they hardly play any of their original songs! I heard a few of his original tracks at the beginning of the set but, during the hour I was there, I heard a lot of this repetitive, fast paced edm beat that is not very relatable to his original music. It was disappointing for me overall, but perhaps I missed some other tracks because I ended up leaving before it was over. I left partly because of the setlist, but mostly because of a different, more offensive reason.

At one point, mura was playing some cool hip-hop tracks over his edm type beats, but it sounded really cool – nice bass lines, clean-sounding vocals. Neem and I were really feeling it and I was finally starting to get into the set. Then, one part of the lyrics were SUPER un-cut and the song starts dropping n-bombs. Neem and I took one look at each other and telepathically decided that we had had enough.

when you hear the n-word in a room full of non-black ppl o_0

Personally, I am not a fan of the n-word in any context and I wish the word would die a quick death. I ESPECIALLY do not like the n-word being said in a space where 99% of the people there are not black and the person who is saying it (in this case, the music artist who chose to sample a song with the word in it) is also not black. To hear the word being said in a space where most of the people there are not negatively affected by its use and often have used the word in a derogatory context just feels.. ass-backwards. Like mura, you know you could’ve chosen any vocals in the world to sample (like MINE), you could’ve silenced the offensive parts, and you knew the type of audience you would pull especially in a place like sf. It’s especially giving hostile because, when I walk into a space like this mura masa show, most of the people there look at me and my husband like “what are they doing here” as if black ppl don’t listen to electronic music. It screams cultural appropriation to me – you took a small piece of the black experience, made a conscious choice to keep the offensive parts, re-packaged it for a non-black audience and all the while, that same audience doesn’t want me, an actual black person, in the room. Honestly, it was all very disappointing and left me feeling very awkward and unwelcomed. But hey, what do you expect when in sf.

lemme sit my ass down before i get too irritated, lol

So yeah, it was one of the very few times that I left a show early. I may have to just stop going to SF for shows because the artists always pull this shit – re-packaging their music to fit the predominately white/rich/techno club kids (also looking @ you snakehips and sango). Ill say it again – if I go to a show for a specific artist, I hope to hear more original music than any random stuff. Troyboi did that part well, the rest of y’all should take notes.

at least i was lookin' cute tho

Anyyywayys, yeah. Overall the show was meh. Prolly won’t pay to see him in concert ever again. And to all you non-black ppl who like to say the n-word AT ALL, even when a song calls for it, I’m judging you negatively. For non-black artists who sample the word in your music, im judging you negatively. For the black celebs (or people) that like to use this word in mixed company or who use it in their songs knowing damn well their audiences are mostly white, im judging you negatively. For black ppl giving non-black people a “pass” to say this word in any context, im JUDGING YOU NEGATIVELY.

If you’d like to chat more, hit me up on my homepage or my instagram @bunnygoestoshows <3

me kicking away the dog bowls b/c wtf was the point of them, fr back to home