Written and Photos by Israel Lerma
To start this review, I must admit that Vince Staples is personally one of my favorite rappers of all time. I even dissected his new album, Crybaby, on my YouTube channel. He is the new generation of Childish Gambino, with continuously evolving sounds, serious topics at times, great rapping and singing, a similar album cover, and even his own show. I love Vince in every way. His show was just recently canceled, but I quite enjoyed it. While Gambino surpasses him in almost every category, the boy Vince is special and is still in my top 15 rappers. Now, when I got accepted for media coverage of Vince at the Bayou Music Center on Wednesday, I was excited. Out of all the shows I have covered, he is in my top 3 favorite artists to cover, so you know the expectations were high. The concert took place on October 21st, a random Wednesday night, at the Bayou Music Center.
Now, the first thing to note is that the merch was just disappointing—nothing particularly special, just very basic shirts anyone can make. I still bought one just 'cause of Vince's name, but they are so simple and have so much potential, especially with his new album. Also, my first impression was that this venue was at like 30% capacity... like, that sucked. The venue's balcony was closed, which rarely happens, 'cause ticket sales were under 500 out of a capacity of like 2,000+. That is so tragic. I don't know if it was the date or if people just don't love Vince like that, but that really killed the vibe a little.
Opening for Vince was this band called Provoker. This band was just the definition of okay. No offense, I have nothing good or bad to say. They were just playing some rock music on the heavier side that the fans couldn't care less about. Like seriously, no one seemed interested at all in their performance, which was just alright. The lead singer was great at times when he held his notes and sang his heart out, but nothing to be amazed at. I really would've preferred a Kenny Mason or a Mavi, who are real, genuine soul rappers. But Provoker opened the Texas show due to location, and their sounds are heavily featured in Vince's new album, Crybaby.
Now, Vince came out to "God Bless America," which was an unexpected opener, but it did the job. He even did some a cappella, which was quite interesting. A very important thing to note was the use of the band throughout the whole show. There was a drummer, a bassist, and an electric distorted guitar player who was, like, in high school, according to Vince. After moving on to the second song, I just knew it was not gonna be an ideal night. The lighting was so not good, with very dark lighting for everyone or random neon lights that flashed rarely. Vince himself was wearing his merch hoodie and a hat at the same time, which made it even harder to see his face.
Moving on to bigger complaints, oh man. The use of the band is a nice idea, especially for this album tour. This new album, Crybaby, which I won't go into too much detail about since I already dissected it (watch my video), is punk rock/rap that criticizes America. The studio album itself is beautiful and one of my favorites of the year. He genuinely made this new sound surprisingly work in a way that addresses serious societal flaws in America. But MAN, the live band, while a nice idea for this genre of album, was tooooo, toooo, tooooooo loud. Like, the drums were not too bad, but they were basically playing loudly the whole night. The bassist was surprisingly chill, but still, it was a little too much. But the guitar, the electric distorted sound, needs to be toned down like crazy. It just did not sound great sometimes with its intensity. But you want to know the worst part? Vince Staples' microphone levels were so low, it felt like they were barely reaching 60 decibels. Like bro, I could barely hear him rap/sing around half the time. EVEN when he talked to the audience, I genuinely could not understand bro. Now, I've been to 38 concerts, and this is the first time I have experienced mixing issues, and this issue genuinely brought down the night a lot.
Now, to move on to some highlights, the setlist was genuinely pretty good. It is a little disappointing since he only picked 3 albums out of seven to play, and he did not even play his most popular song, "Norf Norf." Both of these facts are so surprising because why? You have only one song in the 100 million+ range, and you're not playing it... that's a shock. But again, the songs he did pick were, in my opinion, his best songs. The order of the setlist was quite weird, but still, it was cool. "Shame on the Devil," "Nothing Matters," and "When Sparks Fly" are all bangers that he delivered on. While these primarily rapping songs sounded different with a band, it was still kinda nice with these instruments. While it was hard to follow his raps, it was a vibe that I could rap along to. Also, when I did understand what he was saying, his sorta fan engagement was pretty cool because he was actually interacting and making us laugh. While he does have a reputation for taking it too far, which he did with a certain joke, that is just how Vince is. For like 3 minutes, it felt like a stand-up comedy set, which was quite cool.
Anyways, that was my review. I know I went pretty harsh, but I still had fun, honestly. Just this one simple improvement, and maybe even just a smaller venue, would've fit better.
Rating Vince Staples' Show, Letterboxd Style
Setlist - .75 --> Great songs, very weird order, and no love for the other albums like Big Fish Theory or his self-titled album, which is wack.- Stage Presence - .75 --> He had the confidence for sure, did talk to fans, and joked around a lot. Pretty cool. The band stayed still for the most part, with basic movements. Vince did move a lot, though.
- Performance - .75 --> The audio levels bring this down. Also, since the show barely sold, it felt like Vince lost a little inspiration...
- Audience - .5 --> Yeah, it was okay. Nothing crazy. There were some real fans, some fake ones. No one moshed, and people barely moved.
- Overall Experience / Vibe - .5 --> I saw my boy Brandon randomly, which was cool. In the photo pit, I did not perform as well, but that is on me. I rapped and sang along to a lot of the songs, which was pretty cool.
- Total: 3.25/5 Stars
Setlist - .75 --> Great songs, very weird order, and no love for the other albums like Big Fish Theory or his self-titled album, which is wack.