A Night at The Independent with Yaya Bey
How the Brooklyn artist turned a venue into a safe space.
(Photo by Brandon Byrd)
On a chilly Friday night, a multicultural crowd of all ages gathered at The Independent, a music venue in San Francisco, to see Yaya Bey. The Brooklyn artist stopped by the Bay for the second to last stop on the United States leg of her Do It Afraid tour, named after her most recent album released in June 2025.
As the standing room began to fill and most gathered near the stage, while others stayed by the bar in the back of the room to chat, the first act, Maya Unagi came to the stage. Accompanied by a guitarist, the singer performed smooth psychedelic R&B songs, most being from her new EP, “Pieces.”
People in the crowd swayed and more and more of the groups socializing in the back turned to the stage, listening attentively as she performed songs about self-actualization, accepting change, and trusting the path set for her.
Maya Unagi opening the show, performing in front of the growing crowd.
(Photo by Brandon Byrd)
After she left the stage, the crowd began to mingle again, waiting for the next act. After a few minutes of waiting, another singer and guitarist duo came to the stage by the name of Bathe.
The duo, two best friends from Brooklyn, held their own as they delivered silky-smooth R&B while keeping the crowd engaged. They drew everyone in with call-and-response moments and soulful renditions of R&B classics like Miguel’s “Sure Thing” and Maxwell’s “Sumthin Sumthin.” As they performed, they continued to check the temperature of the crowd as some still chatted in the back by the bar.
As they performed their last song, Dev, the singer of the duo jumped off the stage into the crowd and sang to members of the audience. As everyone cheered, he climbed back on stage and asked, “Are y’all ready for Yaya Bey?!”, which was met with nothing but cheers.
Dev and Corey aka Bathe performing an original song of theirs.
(Photo by Brandon Byrd)
Finally, Yaya Bey’s set began. Her three-man-band took the stage followed by Yaya herself, who was immediately met by cheers and proclamations of love from the crowd.
Throughout her performance she would stop and interact with her fans, having conversations about how much she hates touring, explaining why young artists shouldn’t sign to labels, and shedding light on her thoughts about atrocities currently happening all over the world. Despite all of the negativity in the world that the Brooklyn artist acknowledged, she urged the crowd to continue to live their lives and stay positive.
“We cannot be doomsday preppers cause that’s pussy. Don’t be pussy,” she said.
After the seriousness of the conversations, Yaya broke out into a string of dance records like, “in a circle” and “merlot and grigio,” getting the crowd as active as it had been all night. Joy filled the room as the audience watched Yaya dance across the stage while the band cheered her on instrumentally.
The crowd gathered around the stage to watch Yaya Bey perform.
(Photo by Brandon Byrd)
After over an hour on stage, Yaya announced that she would be doing one last song, and the crowd groaned with disapproval. They soon began to cheer again once they realized it was “meet me in brooklyn”, a standout from Yaya’s 2022 album, “Remember Your North Star.”
As Yaya began to sing the lyrics, “come little baby tell me what I wanna know” the crowd erupted and joined in. The original song is only a minute and thirty seconds but the band kept the melody going adding drum fills and flourishes to add to the calm nature of the original. Yaya used the opportunity to get the crowd involved one more time, getting each section to sing with her, playfully calling out audience members who she noticed weren’t participating. By the end, everyone was laughing and singing. The crowd chilling at the bar had joined in at this point, fully being pulled in by the energy of the show happening in front of them.
As the song ended, Yaya Bey and the band stood as the crowd’s cheers echoed through the room. As they began to walk off, the pianist leaned over to audience members right next to him and mouthed “encore” letting them know that the show might not be over yet. The group he spoke to then began chants that filled the room immediately after:
“Encore, encore, encore!”
Not long after, Yaya and the band returned to the stage, greeted by the loudest cheers of the night. As she sat down and the lights turned blue, the band began playing “reprise”, an introspective track once again from Yaya’s 2022 album. The singer gave a passionate, high-energy performance of the song. As she rapped the verses, it was easy to tell which lines stood out to her fans.
“I put a brick through your window, boy cause you ain’t gon just play me like Nintendo boy. There’s a window in time, when my daddy loved my mama and for that I’m alive, and for that I’m a gem,” garnered the most crowd reaction of the night.
As the song came to an end, the band played a rendition of the melody of the song, both somber and hopeful, as Yaya stood up, she waved and smiled to the crowd and walked off for the final time.
As she left, the crowd began to chat again as they moved towards the exits with smiles on their faces—but this time the conversation was all about the three act show that they just experienced at The Independent in San Francisco.
