Tyler, the Creator Proves that He’s a Modern Day Rockstar
On September 22, 2019, I got the opportunity to go to the IGOR tour in Columbus, Ohio at EXPRESS LIVE!
Goldlink and Jaden Smith were the opening acts, followed by the man himself. Goldlink was pretty solid, he felt mostly just a warm-up act, but he seemed genuinely excited to be there. I would have loved to have heard “Black Balloon”, a deep cut feature from Denzel Curry, but other than that he did his thing and he did it well. Jaden was actually a fantastic live performer, he brought a ton of energy and even filmed a music video live on stage, donning a ski mask. I may or may not have geeked out when “Goku” came on ;).
Then we waited for what felt like an hour for Tyler to come out. After all that time, the distorted bass opening hit hard. Opening your concert with that—no introduction, is legendary. That was followed by some more songs from his latest album, IGOR, which were amazing, the crowd energy and the acoustics were insane and felt as vibrant as any of the legendary rock tours of the past. Before “EARFQUAKE” he did a beautiful piano solo, really emphasizing what a musical genius he is. Then he threw it back to the “what the f**k did he just say” era, to quote his own words. Hearing “IFHY”, “Yonkers”, and “She” was incredible, he didn’t need to play them but I’m so happy he did. I loved how the opening guitar riff of “WHAT’S GOOD?” was synced up to the lights on the stage. The “bangers” like “Who Dat Boi?” and “OKRA” went way harder than I expected and erased any doubts I had about how Tyler would translate live. It was also great seeing the looks on the newer fans’ faces after he casually screamed the C-word during “IFHY”, not gonna lie.
He also doubled as a stand-up comedian at times, and it was obvious that he makes different jokes at every show he does. Hearing him talk about riding his bike through Upper Arlington was a pretty great moment for this Columbus kid. Also when he noticed that the people in the front on the right side couldn’t see he made sure that he did a song over by them which was another pretty sweet touch. Despite that, the sightlines were pretty fantastic at the venue, even from my general admission area I was really close to the stage and had no issues seeing at all. Overall, this was an incredible concert and I bet that the IGOR tour will be remembered for years to come. If you get the chance to go I would highly recommend it!
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