Chance the Rapper was Great. Everything Else at his St. Louis Show was Terrible.
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Last night I had the pleasure to see Chance the Rapper in concert here in Saint Louis. The show was great, but there was some not so fun stuff I, and a lot of other people, had to deal with last night.
I want to get the bad out of the way first, then give the review of the Chance show. First off, I think the Scottrade Center oversold the show. There were enormous lines just to get in. They seemed to have every door to get in open, but when you got in, there were only 2 security people and 2 metal detectors. So, they had four or five doors open only to let all the people in those four or five lines regroup and get into 2 lines. It was a cluster from the start. After we finally got in, we found our seats fairly easily, but since the show seemed to be oversold, there were multiple people with the same seats as my friend and I. This was frustrating, but we made it work because everyone stood the whole time. Still, it was annoying.
Chance had 2 openers, and neither were that good, in my opinion. I already forgot the rapper's name that was the first opener. His stuff was your typical bass heavy, gun shot sounds and air horns over and over again. It was very forgettable. Then there was DJ Oreo. This guy did have a ton of energy, and was a great hype guy for the show, but all he was doing was taking requests from the crowd. I'm serious. He had his Twitter and Instagram handle on the big screen and was playing parts of songs that people in the crowd had tweeted at him. I can listen to the radio in my car or at home. Like I said, he was full of energy, but we were basically listening to a very, very loud radio. This was made even worse by all the clearly drunk teens that were rapping very loudly with every single song. These were all white teens as well. It was embarrassing. This was one of the first times in my 30's when I actually felt old. I was getting irritated by all this. I don't do dance clubs and I hate when non singers sing. It was very upsetting.
DJ Oreo, after what seemed like an hour, finally said that Chance was ready to come on the stage. I got excited, but then there was another 30 minute wait. So, this DJ gets the crowd ready, then we sit there for 30 minutes. I was very close to getting ready to leave, especially when 2 of the WASPY-est people I have ever seen said that we were in the wrong seats, finally got it all figured out, and then the male of the group was dropping unspeakable words along with every rap song.
What kept me and my buddy there was, the lights went down, and finally, after 2 plus hours of listening to a very subpar rapper and a DJ playing today's hits, Chance the Rapper finally hit the stage. He rode out on a scooter and immediately went into the song "Mixtape" from "Coloring Book". All my anger disappeared. I was happy to be seeing this great artist live. For the next 90 minutes, it was great. Chance played a ton of songs, not just stuff from "Coloring Book". He played a lot of singles that he has performed on with guys like DJ Khaled. He did one of his lesser known tunes on a project he did some surfer guy when they were both broke. He played a ton of stuff off my favorite record, "Acid Rap", highlighted by my favorite Chance song, "Favorite Song", ironically. I was pumped to hear so much from "Acid Rap". I was also thrilled to hear that his mother, who was in attendance, loves "Acid Rap" as much as I do. The show was on Mother's Day, so it was nice to see his mom in the crowd. I love stuff like that at live shows. It was great.
Midway through his set, he introduced a special guest, Maxwell. I remembered the name, but I couldn't figure out who he was. Then, it dawned on me, he was a big R&B guy in the mid to late 90's. I remember a bunch of girls in high school loved his songs. It all came flowing back when he said to the audience, "I want to take you all back to 96 with this song", and he played one of his hits. It was an odd change of pace, but I've got to say, it was nice. All his songs were specifically for the mothers in the audience, and like I said, it was very nice and sweet.
After this little interlude, Chance came back on stage and crushed for another 40 minutes plus. This was when he did a bunch off of "Coloring Book", and all the songs sounded great. I loved when he did "Same Drugs" specifically. He was sitting on a stool and singing, then all of the sudden a big stage rig dropped down over the audience and he walked across singing the song to all the people there. It was cool as hell. There were a lot of fireworks, smoke, fires and a great light show. He clearly put a lot into the production of this tour. He was great as far as his performance, and at times, he seemed like a conductor, imploring the audience to sing along. This didn't make me as mad as usual because Chance is so god damn charming. He is also a very deep individual, giving a lot of deep talks and philosophizing on life and love and faith.
So, while I was frustrated at the start, Chance the Rapper came out and played one hell of a live show. He is a very good, very giving performer. Know that when you are going to his show that you will have to wait for awhile, almost to the point of wanting to leave, but when he hits the stage, the wait will be worth it. I cannot wait to see what he does next, and I recommend going to see him live if he comes near, or to, your town.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is also a white kid who loves rap, he just forgets to be a douchebag like so many others.
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