TEI SHI IS BACK IN A BIG WAY AT ROUGH TRADE

“Sorry, my nerves are getting to me, I thought I was over that,” Tei Shi says bashfully as she takes a beat in between songs, messing with her curly dark locks and looking ridiculously amazing in a green sheer ruffle leotard and cutout denim pants.

Tei Shi

After not taking the stage for over a year and a half, Tei Shi performed for two sold out crowds last week at Rough Trade, showing how dedicated her fans are to her. She’s been taking the time off from performing perfecting her newest release, Crawl Space, which came out on March 31^st of this year.

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I remember seeing Tei Shi for the first time during CMJ 2014 at Pianos and being absolutely entranced by her – obviously falling in love with “Bassically.” Her different approach to synth-pop instantly drew me to her and I became a quick fan. I saw her a couple more times shortly after that and then she just seemed to disappear – soon to find out she was working on her debut album Crawl Space.

TS

Crawl Space is different than what I’ve heard from Tei Shi before. It’s slightly more R&B, very sultry, while still keeping that element of surprise along the way. Her songs are filled with raw emotion and seem to come from a time of reflection of pain and overall life experiences.

Tei Shi

TS

Tei Shi performed songs from Crawl Space with great passion and artistry even singing live in Spanish for the first time during her beautifully composed “Como Si.” She threw in some old favorites as well, closing the show with “Bassically.” As she wailed crouched down on the stage, the audience wailed back in a beautiful echo of shared emotional experiences – therapy for both parties.

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Tei Shi

Fellow South American descendants, Salt Cathedral, opened the show with a dark, slightly eerie, but in a beautiful way, performance warming up the crowd for the amazingness that was about to come.