Tyler the Creator – March 3, 2022

First, let me just say that whatever it was I witnessed, the crowd was really into it. On March 3, 2022 I found myself at a Tyler the Creator concert in Worcester, MA. I’ve gotten to the point in my concert going career that I’m now taking my teenage son and his friends to see the bands they like (but I still hit up my own as well).

Teezo Touchdown was the opening act and we missed 90% of it. His stage set looked similar to “Tool Time” (Remember Tim, the Tool Man, Taylor?) and I’m guessing that’s because he has a song called Handyman. Newest single I believe.

Next was Vince Staples. Yes, he rapped, yes, most people seemed into it. I can’t tell you either way if he was good or not, but the three teenagers I was chaperoning tell me he wasn’t.

Next was Kali Uchis. Can’t say I cared for her though she did more actual singing than the rest of the performers. She had really annoying back-up dancers that kind of distracted me from what she was doing. But it didn’t seem that she can dance all that well herself.  However, that didn’t stop the crowd from eating it up. What was so weird was that she would be standing and singing. A moment later, she would sit down and the crowd would go nuts cheering. Then she’d turn around 90 degrees, and the crowd would go nuts again. Any significant movement, and the crowd went crazy. Very odd. Google tells me she’s a Colombian-American artist which explains why I swear some of the songs were in Spanish.

When she was done, Tyler the Creator came out to close the night. I didn’t know a damn thing about any of these four performers, and to this point, not a single instrument had been seen all night. Tyler was no exception. But at least he a had a cool stage set up. He entered the stage through the floor, inside a 1930s Wraith Rolls Royce. There was a big house set up on the stage that he could go up and down the stairs of, and there was another stage at the back of the arena. He managed to spend a lot of time on both stages, moving from each stage with a boat that brought him back and forth. So that was pretty cool. He also used a fair amount of pyrotechnics. So he’s put a lot into his performance.

Even though I was completely out of my element, I still enjoy live events like this and made some observations. Even at a rap show, slam dancing and crowd surfing is still alive and well (at least in Worcester). Tyler, regardless of your taste in music, is an entertainer. He talked with the crowd a lot, and had some fun with the name “Worcester.” Almost everyone says “Thank you Boston” when they play Worcester, but he took the time to make fun of that and learned how to (sorta) pronounce it. Also, with the exception of me, everyone seemed to know the words to all of Tyler’s songs and loudly sang along. This includes the 8-year-old behind me – he seemed to censor himself with the F-bombs and N-bombs, but I heard his dirty little mouth screaming out “bitch” and other expletives.

With all that said, watching one dude on stage, poorly dancing, and occasionally rapping over pre-recorded music and background vocals really isn’t my thing. I can always appreciate a band, even if I can’t stand their music, by how well they play live. In this case, there was nothing to “play.” Like I said, not a single instrument was seen this night. I guess one could argue that the vocals were the instrument, as well as the computer. Personally, I just think if there had been a backing band making the music vs a computer, I would’ve been more impressed. That’s just my thoughts.

I can’t tell you what songs were played or in what order except Earfquake (which I thought was Earthquake), Yonkers, and See You Again. That’s it. First rap show in the books. Will I do it again? Perhaps if the tickets are free.