Concert Review: Multi-Instrumentalist Masego Brings ‘Fix Your Face’ Album to Life at Hollywood’s Greek Theater

The GRAMMY-nominated multi-instrumentalist closed out his tour with an evening of R&B, soul, jazz, live instrumentation and plenty of crowd interaction.

There are concerts where you go to hear the songs you already know, and there are shows where the performance gives you something extra to take home. Masego’s stop at the Greek Theatre last night landed somewhere in between — familiar enough for the crowd to sing along, and loose enough to feel like something was being built right there in the moment with his looping live instrumentation.

It was the final stop of Masego’s Fix Your Face tour before the Capitol Records signed artist and his band head to Europe in a couple of weeks, and the miles they’ve logged together showed. The band was in synch and comfortable, entertaining and wowing without ever feeling overly rehearsed.

The Greek Theatre does some of the work for you. It isn’t the biggest venue in town, but that’s part of the charm — clean, intimate, beautifully maintained, with lighting stretching into the trees and hills behind the stage. There’s a nostalgia to the place that feels distinctly Hollywood, and the sound has a character of its own, traveling through the natural amphitheater and out into the canyons.

The evening got started around 8 p.m. with Lekan, a first-generation Nigerian R&B singer who brought a smooth, soulful set to the stage. He was joined by his brother on electric guitar — the two have played together since they were 12, and that history showed in their chemistry, his brother’s steady playing giving Lekan room to work the room. It was clear the ladies in the crowd took notice too when Lekan closed with a cover of Musiq Soulchild’s “Just Friends (Sunny),” and the Greek immediately turned into a singalong. It was a fitting choice, and a nice preview of the evening’s larger theme, since Musiq Soulchild himself appears on Masego’s new album, Fix Your Face.

A Multi-Instrumentalist in His Element

For those unfamiliar, Masego is a Virginia-raised, GRAMMY-nominated artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist with Jamaican roots who has built his career blending R&B, soul, jazz, hip-hop and other influences into something he’s called “TrapHouseJazz.” Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Masego he grew up in Newport News, Virginia, and you can hear his worldly travels in his music.

He’s largely self-taught, having picked up drums, piano, saxophone, guitar and cello without any formal training — which goes a long way toward explaining how comfortable he looked moving between instruments on stage last night. But you don’t need the biography to understand the music — you just need to watch him perform.

Throughout the night, he humorously moved between saxophone, guitar, piano, vocals and electronic equipment, at times using a drum machine and looping sounds to build songs in front of the audience in real time. That’s the part of the show that stood out most: it’s one thing to hear the finished production, it’s another to watch an artist having fun stacking layers live, in front of several thousand people.

Masego wasn’t content to stand behind a microphone and run through the set. He talked to the crowd all night, played off their reactions, and built in plenty of room for audience participation — at one point tossing roses into the crowd, a little old-school showmanship. Watching him work the theater’s crowd recalled the energy of musicians you’d catch on a boardwalk or in New Orleans — people who play because it’s the life they’ve chosen, not just the job. He’s a consummate performer, but the musicianship never gets buried under the showmanship.

Highlights of the show included “Heaven,” “Navajo,” “Gone” featuring Lekan, “Dotted Line,” “Go,” “I Know” and, of course, the encore “Tadow.” Each brought a different side of Masego’s sound, and together they showed why his catalog translates so well live. “Tadow” was naturally one of the biggest moments — hearing a song that’s traveled the world through headphones and playlists. But I left feeling like “Tadow” is only the tip of the iceberg when listenting to Masego’s music. is one thing; standing in a packed Greek Theatre while the artist who made it brings it back to life on saxophone is another entirely

Fix Your Face

Back in 2015 we got Masego’s debut project, The Pink Polo EP with Medasin, but it was 2017’s “Tadow,” and his collaboration with FKJ, that turned him into a global name and is now Platinum-certified in the U.S. His 2018 debut album, Lady Lady, built on that momentum, and by 2021 his EP Studying Abroad: Extended Stay had earned him his first GRAMMY nomination, for Best Progressive R&B Album.

He followed that with his self-titled sophomore album in 2023. Along the way he’s amassed nearly two billion global streams with RIAA Gold and Platinum certifications across multiple markets. Impressive numbers, but they don’t quite explain what it’s like to watch him build music live.

The current chapter is Fix Your Face, the album at the center of this tour — and a more personal record than his past work. For the first time, Masego wrote his music down rather than relying primarily on freestyle, drawing from formative memories alongside more recent experience. Grief, heartbreak, infatuation, lust and identity all show up in the material, but the record never stays heavy for long; Masego balances those moments with the playful energy that’s always been part of his sound.

The album also features a strong lineup of R&B voices — Buju Banton, Keyshia Cole, Leon Thomas and Musiq Soulchild — a mix of old and new that suits an artist whose music has always looked forward while staying tied to the R&B tradition that shaped him. Hearing the Fix Your Face material alongside his older catalog made that evolution easy to hear.

One Last Night Before Europe

By the end of the night, no single moment stood out on its own — it was the combination. A band that had clearly put in the miles. Lekan opening with his brother and turning the Greek into a singalong. A multi-instrumentalist moving fluidly from saxophone to guitar to keys to electronics. A crowd willing to participate. And a venue like the Greek that made the whole thing sound better than it already was.

Masego is in an interesting place creatively — Fix Your Face is more personal and deliberate in its songwriting, while the live show still leaves plenty of room for improvisation, humor and interaction. That’s the best way to describe last night: musical, polished, loose and fun. Roses flying into the crowd, people singing along, saxophone cutting through the canyon, the occasional smell of cocoa butter and smoke drifting through the seats.

Not a bad way to close out a tour.