LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: Channel Tres in Boston, MA (09.11.26.)
Channel Tres has been on my radar for ten years, and he keeps getting better with age. After parting ways with his label and management in early 2025, he retreated to Topanga Canyon with little more than an MPC and a clear head, working through that reset with collaborators including Thundercat and Pharrell before landing on Enigma POV, his sophomore album. The Enigma Tour that followed is stripped down to smaller rooms, a rotating cast of openers instead of bigger names like Thundercat or Kaytranada, whom he’s shared stages with in the past, with Eliza Rose opening the Boston date. Just him, on a more personal mission, mixing the new record with the hits.
Channel’s built his whole career on this exact kind of show. Since debuting in 2018 with “Topdown” and “Controller,” he’s carved out a sound he calls “Compton House” — house music with the weight of hip-hop behind it — and his live sets have a reputation for feeling less like a rap show and more like a warehouse rave, all short vocal commands and deep drums pushing people toward the floor. That reputation held up completely at Royale.
I liked that smaller setup. Royale was only about half full, and honestly, that made it better. Nobody was standing still, except me, camera in hand, trying to capture it all. Every few songs, Channel would tell the crowd to get closer, to dance together instead of just watching.
The stage setup matched the mood: a massive silver disco ball shaped like a balloon, gold reflectors lighting up behind him. He’d work the mic stand for a stretch, then bring it down to the stage floor, sit, sing right into the crowd, and pop back up to dance. Never stayed in one spot for long.
He opened with the title track, “Enigma POV,” straight into “Only One.” After a quick break to talk to the crowd, he hit “Medicine,” and that’s the moment the show really caught fire. From there it was one hit after another: “Controller,” one of his all-time biggest, then “Rhythm King,” “Go Get It,” “Curious,” “Mood Right,” and “Tongue Ring.”
Then things took a turn: a DJ set, fifteen or twenty minutes long, that turned Royale into a straight-up house party. Some ABBA mixed in with a few other surprises. Then he got into the new stuff: “Creatine,” “Give You Some,” and my new favorite, “Pop Pop.” The floor was shaking. He had the whole room doing call-and-response: “you say pop pop, then I say, then you say pop pop,” completely interactive, completely unhinged in the best way. He cracked a joke about an after-party before heading to the next city, and the Boston crowd, a noticeably younger one, ate it up.
He kept rolling with “Gangsta,” then “Black Techno Guy,” which started in a way that threw people for a second; I loved that he did it anyway. He closed the main set with “Ghost Protocol” before coming back for the encore: “6 am,” one of my favorite songs of his, period, and “Topdown” to send everyone home.
My only gripe: the set felt short, and I wanted a few more of the classics in there. But I walked out happy and satisfied with no complaints worth holding onto.
Photos – Channel Tres at Royale in Boston, MA on September 11th:
