Kes The Band kicked off the West Coast leg of the Liki Tiki Tour this week with a stirring showing on Wednesday September 28th at the House of Blues restaurant and bar in Anaheim, California.
Lead vocalist, Kees Dieffenthaller received a rousing cheer of approval as he invited the audience to rename the iconic “House of Blues” to the “House of Soca” during their performance.
Additional shows on the West Coast are scheduled for Friday, September 30th at The Music Box in San Diego, October 1st at Ace of Spades in Sacramento and October 2nd at Cornerstone in Berkeley.
Following successful stops and sets at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia and The Underground at Ink Block in Boston, opening act, L’shun “Jimmy October” Emmanuel and Haitian collaborator, Jonathan “JPerry” Perry joined the band for a ground-breaking sold out show at The Fillmore on the East Coast recently.”We played Maryland last night, which was insane!, said Jimmy October. “Like for real, like.. Last night was really special. It was a sold out show and I was able to meet up with people and fans after, who were so enthusiastic and happy to see me for the first time and to experience us,” he said.
“Just seeing the energy of the people filling up a room and they’re all loving the music, our culture and loving the new things that we’re doing and it’s also me seeing Kes doing his thing at the same time too. That man is a legend 100%, ” he added.
Jimmy October collaborated with Kees in 2020 on the hit single, “Magic” and revealed that he was thrilled to be included on the band’s current US tour dates.
Aside from the actual artistes involved, Kes’ new management team has also expressed great satisfaction with the completion of the first leg of the tour and is excited about taking Soca to new spaces and places. Manager, Damon DeGraff said, “The goal is to continuously expand how our music touches various regions and cultures and by doing this successfully and selling out these venues, we’re showing that our sound and culture can be engaging in venues where traditionally, soca music has never been heard.”
