tour: Don’t Be Dumb Tour

rec-rated: 7/10

comments: A$AP Rocky's show was honestly a pretty mixed experience. The production was incredible. There were tons of dancers, great visuals, and he even flew around the arena in a fake helicopter, which was genuinely one of the coolest moments of the night. He also performed a good number of songs, so it never felt like one of those rap shows where the artist barely comes out or only does snippets. That said, I had pretty mixed feelings by the end of the night. The crowd made me feel old as a 24-year-old because it seemed like it was mostly high schoolers, and there were even kids there with their moms (which was cute, although A$AP Rocky is definitely not the most family-friendly artist). He also came on really late; we were all waiting for what felt like forever before he finally got on. What made it worse was that he spent the first 20 minutes in the GA floor dancing around with fans and his dancers instead of performing on the main stage. I'm sure it was a blast for everyone on the floor, but if you were sitting in the upper sections like I was, you were basically watching the video screens wondering if this was going to be the whole show. My biggest issue, though, was that he barely seemed to perform live. It felt like he lip-synced about 98% of the concert. There were so many moments where his mic was down by his side while his vocals were still blasting through the speakers. The volume was also unbearably loud. I don't think he performed a single full song completely live, and that's what really took me out of it. If I wanted to hear the studio recordings, I could've just stayed home and listened to him on my speakers. Overall, visually it was a really cool show, and it was nice to listen to a bunch of songs I've had saved for years, but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to see A$AP Rocky perform live again.