Channel Tres performed on Oct. 11 at Underground Arts in Philadelphia, Pa. for the tenth stop of his eponymous tour. The show featured support from Toronto-based artist, Rochelle Jordan, an R&B/dance artist who recently released her first album since 2014.
Channel Tres, (birth name Sheldon Young), released a seven-track project titled “refresh” on March 2, 2022. Tres then dropped a double-sided single later in March and two songs in July and September that appear to be for another project, hence an identical cover. This year has been busy for him, also appearing alongside Shygirl on Mura Masa’s “hollaback bitch,” on Honey Dijon’s project “Show Me Some Love” and Tove Lo’s “Dirt Femme” project.
The dark, moody night club setting of Underground Arts was very fitting for both Jordan and Tres’s aesthetics. The show started later than anticipated with Rochelle Jordan coming on stage around 8:45 p.m., a full hour later than scheduled. As the opener, Jordan got the crowd bouncing with dark, four-on-the-floor beats and hypnotic dancing. Both her and her DJ were dressed in deconstructed, industrial inspired clothing.
Jordan’s second song of the set, “All Along” from her second album “Play With The Changes,” was highly anticipated by the crowd. People were slowly dancing in the moving green, blue and purple lights. Jordan and her DJ were adding to the club-like atmosphere by wearing jet-black sunglasses, thigh-high boots and black leather gloves. Jordan’s sweet cashmere-like voice was mesmerizing with songs such as “Situation” and “Dancing Elephants” making people sing the lyrics from start to finish. Lots of sparkles, lots of glitter and lots of colors were seen inside Underground Arts.
The time gap in between felt extra long, as stagehands darted around preparing the area for Tres. A raised platform with two steps on each side was placed in the back center of the stage, and a mic stand was readied on top of it. The headlining act began as four dancers appeared on the small stage in the darkness before Tres made his entrance.
The dancers, credited on Instagram as Nique27, Jessie Hollie, Chris Castillo and Sasha Mallory would occasionally synchronize with Tres in choreography which was pleasing to watch and impressively executed in such limited space. During the first two tracks, Tres primarily stayed atop the small platform behind the mic stand, but he would quickly find his way to the front of the stage. Tres and the dancers’ matching outfits made the whole performance look completely fluid, without any unnecessary breaks. Their silver crop tops and silver gloves were constantly shining in the bright green strobe lights.
His setlist ranged from early tracks to unreleased tracks. Tres stated that multiple songs were from a new project, but unfortunately not giving any more info than that. He performed “Jet Black” and “Controller” from his self-titled 2018 EP, “Sexy Black Timberlake,” “Brilliant” and “Black Moses” from the 2019 EP “Black Moses” and his 2020 single “Weedman.” Before this track, he asked the crowd “Did they legalize weed out here yet?” Disappointed with the answer, he responded “That’s a damn shame.”
Three of the four 2022 singles were performed, these being “Acid In My Blood,” “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “No Limit.” Tres played three unreleased songs, two of which do not appear to exist online yet. According to a paper copy of the setlist they are titled “Big Time” and “All Friends”, the latter featuring a refrain of “I wanna see all my friends at once.” During the encore he would play “6AM,” which was referenced in an article by Vman published in July 2022.
Tres did not omit his most popular track “Topdown”, eventually closing the encore with it. He also played three of his collaborations, “fuego” with Tyler, The Creator, “Impact” with SG Lewis & Robyn and “Lights Up” with Flight Facilities.