That Buzzing Sound: Showcase: Childish Gambino @ The Hollywood Palladium (08/10/12)

Donald Glover’s alter ego returned to Los Angeles putting the period to the 2011/2012 Camp Tour with all his ‘Royalty’ Friends, #afterthebreak…

Childish Gambino, Schoolboy Q, & Chance The Rapper at the Hollywood Palladium

08/10/12

==Highlights==

Gambino. Gambino. Oh Childish Gambino. Look how popular you have become. Feels like yesterday when I first visited your rowdy ‘camp’. You remember– back at Club Nokia almost a year ago. The first sold out LA show. Even than LA was the bookend to that pre-summer camp adventures. Don’t cha feel the deja vu? Because I do. Still made the night worth mentioning.

Afraid this write up is gonna down the road of the last, extinct, B4M one. Where I praised ‘Childish’ Glover for being a rap savior birthed from this ‘Kanye’ generation. Which, he still is. No matter what the ‘crow stuff’d’ Pitchfork says. “Camp” & the newly crowned “Royalty” are two of the best rap albums released in the past year. Those who own them hopefully agrees with that statement. Nevertheless, this isn’t a blurb about album reviews. This is about concerts. Which begs the question which concert was better? Club Nokia or The Palladium?

Nokia was better. Putting it bluntly. Why? Because the popularity factor The floor of the palladium mirrored a music festival. The sold out masses were rowdy, drunk, high, rude, nuts, pushy, and overly arrogant. Wish I could apologize for them. I can’t. Had dancing white boys trying to push me away with their constant touching, a crazy b-boy attempt to smash open a pressurized spite can in the middle of the crowd, and row of college kids lifting each other up to block everyone in the area. Personally hate shows like that. We get it, you want to have fun but you people are crazy. You’re ruining the show for everyone around you. Gambino didn’t seem to mind. Classifying the rage as a 22 out of 10.

After backing away from the pit, which I don’t recommend to anyone on their first trip to the palladium, the mob scene made for some amazing shots! I mean look below. That’s the definition of concert photography. Not ‘up the nose shots’. Capturing unbridled chaos. That’s my job in a nutshell. More on that in the next showcase.

Nokia also gets the point because it was Gambino’s first big show in LA. You could see his sheer excitement as the hype built to this incredible breaking point. He was blown away by all of us rapping along. By the end of the night, he had taken his game to a unforeseen level. To start a sold out world tour on that level only made sense when I saw Glover composure on Friday. He had found himself as a expert performer. Jaded by the millions of fans he had touched. Now committed to the persona over the man. I almost didn’t recognize him. Bravo.

The one highlight was the ‘Royalty’ encore. Royalty was the only aspect of the show that I hadn’t experienced before and came as such a surprise. Joined by openers– Chance the Rapper & Schoolboy Q — they hit on the big hits from the new mixtape. My favorite still was the video game inspired ‘1Up’ because I’m a nerd. What I wasn’t expecting was the custom made freestyle with Chance & Schoolboy. Chance really stole the showcase with his funny disses. Check it out above. The focus here was on room shattering bass. Drowned out all their lyrics.

There was also cover of John Legend’s cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. That was kind of cool. Felt out of place in the mix of his worthy Camp Tracks. That record felt missing unlike the Nokia show where it was the primary focus. Also missing was the chorus. The Rap-band format that LL Cool J created on Unplugged made for a really funky sound.

My two final points are this: One, Gambino looked like he was wearing boat patterned silk PJs which is a gimmick he should look into one of these days. PJs only sleepover concert– just sayin’. Secondly: from the DJs to the openers, we get it you like Kanye West & GOOD Music. It was like listening to my IPod. Problem was their covers felt like time wasters. There are BETTER rappers than Mr. West. I have ‘west coast till I die’ tatted on my skin & would’ve better to hit us with some NWA/Dre/Dogg/2Pac classics. Pander to your audience. Stop the Mr. West dick ridin’ please.

The Palladium was a great show for any new Gambino fan. With a 20 track setlist makes it worth the $35 price. Even if you spent $100, seeing Gambino now as a professional makes for an amazing show. No joke about it. His internet friendly hits sound 100x better with the audience singing along. The giant LCD screen was an upgrade from the tiny LCD screen at Nokia. He should never play “You See Me” without it. Reading along is still one aspect of his show that I absolutely love. The second go around was fun, pity it doesn’t compare to the first. Call me jaded.

Thanks to Donald for putting on another solid show, to the Palladium for housing all the crazy campers, and to Chance & Schoolboy Q for warming us all up.

-J

==Picture Selects==