This, it seemed, was the song that most moved them. During “Boredom,” the crowd huddled as close to the stage as it could. Tyler’s set featured a handful of emotional peaks that provide a sense of what he’s been able to offer young people these past few years. You just need to be in the presence of the parents of teenagers letting out their frustrations to a song whose music video features Tyler in a make-believe dollhouse. Tyler’s credo, of making space for the misfits and outlaws, resonated more deeply than one might immediately think. When he performed “IFHY,” from 2013’s Wolf, the crowd erupted in a cathartic kind of ecstasy. During his performance of the Goblin throwback “She,” the crowd made easy work of Frank Ocean’s entire verse. The set was a reminder just how long he’s been in the business, and just how much he’s touched in that time. No matter how engrossing the sets were, though, it would have been hard to upstage Tyler himself last night. Like a room decorated with just enough frills, Tyler’s set design brought you into the universe of the performance without distracting from it. Still, there was something elegant about how low-fidelity the set work looked. Pyrotechnics popped at the opening and closing of Tyler’s set, and he traversed the audience, from the main stage to a secondary stage styled to look like a meadow, on a giant prop yacht. The commitment to a more elevated simplicity shined through in the show’s set design. The loud pastels of the early OF era have made way for subtle, tastefully selected hues. So, when he emerged onstage - seated in that baby blue Rolls-Royce slowly rising from a platform beneath the stage - you got the sense that, for a moment, everyone in the sold-out arena got to channel their inner children.Ĭall Me If You Get Lost is also something of a shift for Tyler, as he leans into a more sophisticated aesthetic. He’s one of few living artists today that can say they’ve created adolescent anthems for kids in high school right now, as well as adults who were in high school a decade ago.
Tyler’s catalog now features more than 10 years’ worth of music. That felt like a theme throughout the evening. The teens in Phoenix mouthed the lyrics to the 2015 cut “Ridin Round,” despite the fact that most of them don’t have any of the college-age memories associated with the track’s blog-era release. Uchis’ many years of consistency have paid off, as seemingly every teenage girl in the country is completely obsessed. Kali Uchis rounded out the openers, and easily gave Tyler a run for his money in terms of audience excitement. The same can be said for the perennially underrated Vince Staples, whose set was a welcome reminder of the durability and longevity of his output over the past few years. Opening act Teezo Touchdown’s performance left many of the older members of the audience with confused looks on their faces, but it was clear the kids loved it. The entire show was still decidedly youthful.
Last night made for a detente among Gen Xers, millennials, and zoomers. The only difference is that now, in addition to an audience of teens enthralled by his most recent work, Tyler’s fan base includes aging millennials nostalgic for when he first came onto the scene and the parents of today’s youth, themselves enthralled by one of today’s most musically vibrant and energetic performers. Not since the cathartic early days of Odd Future has the 30-year-old rapper seemed this in command of an audience. That much was clear last night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, where he kicked off his Call Me If You Get Lost Tour. PHOENIX – Tyler, the Creator sits at the center of multiple generations’ imaginations.
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