Raise your hand if you’ve ever been to a Genesis Renji show? Alright cool. Now raise your hand if you can say undoubtedly that every Genesis Renji show you’ve been to was FIRE and exceeded your expectations? Exactly. So there was no surprise that Gen’s latest show at Bremen Cafe for his Keefe album release party would be any different. In fact, this show specifically was probably top 2, but not 2, in my opinion. And I’m going to tell you why if you weren’t there, you should’ve been.
Right out the gates, we are going to highlight the fact that this show was completely free. Yup, FREE.99. How many shows do you go to nowadays in Milwaukee where you don’t have to pay for a show? Not too many. This set the show apart right away. Especially since Gen isn’t a new artist trying to grab your attention, he’s already got it, and if you’re a creative, Eastsider, music lover, etc, you either know who he is or have heard his work. So that was dope to give people the opportunity to come out and have a great time without having to worry about the cost.
Secondly, the place got packed...QUICKLY. Doors opened at 9PM and the place was already getting full by 9:30. This was impressive because you already know how people like to be fashionably late to the function lol. By 10:00PM when the show started, the entire room was crowded wall-to-wall in a mostly standing room only venue. The number of people in the room didn’t surprise me though because the music lineup was crazyyyy. MoCity, CT, Von Alexander and J-Lamo (who actually is dropping an EP today called “Born And Raised,” go check that out), performed and they all did their thing.
I’ve been to a packed out show before, but this one felt different. I think the intimate size of the venue played a good part in that too, because the crowd felt like a beautiful harmonious blend of people genuinely wanting to have a good time. No drama. No hate. Even though it was super jammed in there and extremely stuffy…(wooo lol), to me it didn’t seem like they cared that much about that. They just wanted to show support to Gen, his project and all the other artists.
Everyone was laughing, saying hey to folks they haven’t seen in a while, almost like a big family reunion of people who are able to vibe with each other on a different level.
The #1 thing I believe made this night even more special though, was that Gen’s sister came all the way from Dallas to see the show. He said she has never actually seen him perform before, so that meant a lot to him.
