By: Ryan Martin
On March 20th, me, my brother, my best friend and his brother all had an orgy. Kidding. We all went to Boston, which is a 3.5 drive from where we live. We went to see KYLE who is one of all of our favorite rappers who happened to be opening for Hoodie Allen on his Happy Camper tour, his second studio album which was self-released for free. Hoodie was supposed to have the R&B singer Blackbear open for KYLE but he dropped out halfway through the tour. He was replaced by two different acts, Bryce Vine, a pop-rapper/singer and Gnash, who makes music similar to Blackbear, druggy moody trap/R&B influenced tunes. We all had no idea who the first two guys so there was pleasant and not so pleasant surprises.
On March 20th, me, my brother, my best friend and his brother all had an orgy. Kidding. We all went to Boston, which is a 3.5 drive from where we live. We went to see KYLE who is one of all of our favorite rappers who happened to be opening for Hoodie Allen on his Happy Camper tour, his second studio album which was self-released for free. Hoodie was supposed to have the R&B singer Blackbear open for KYLE but he dropped out halfway through the tour. He was replaced by two different acts, Bryce Vine, a pop-rapper/singer and Gnash, who makes music similar to Blackbear, druggy moody trap/R&B influenced tunes. We all had no idea who the first two guys so there was pleasant and not so pleasant surprises.
Act 1: Bryce Vine
Vine opened up the show around 7:15, while people were still freezing their asses off from waiting in line and shuffling in. He performed to a half-full House of Blues and nailed his performance. One minute into his set I could tell the guy had talent. He had the crowd moving and warming up with everyone's hands up and jumping. He wore a headband similar to Frank Ocean's and gave off a similar vibe to his music but with more energy. He reminded me of early Kid Cudi mixed with Frank and some hard dropping beats that made the entire place feel like it was summer again.
Act 2: Gnash
Gnash started out slow to his performance. As the lights went off it took him 5 minutes to take the stage as he was having microphone issues. When he finally did he brought out a dude with an acoustic guitar who was having issues with his amp and couldn't hear. He never did get the guitar working and eventually just helped sing one song and left. Gnash didn't do a lot of original material and when he did I wasn't impressed. He had some corny ass line before he performed his song "Fuck Me Up" where he said he was gonna play this song because the crowd had literally fucked him up. The only highlight to this performance was when he did a cover of Blink-182's "I Miss You". His cover was below average but Blink is my favorite band so I appreciated that.
act 3: KYLE
KYLE's set was bonkers. When the lights went off, SuperDuperBrick, KYLE's right hand man and DJ approached the stage wielding a red lightsaber. KYLE took no time taking the stage as he held a blue lightsaber and "killed" Brick on stage. He followed that up with his ode to the Star Wars series "The Force". The crowd was pumped up but you could feel the anxiousness for Hoodie to take the stage from the bratty girls in the crowd who only knew who Hoodie was. KYLE's set was full of his hit's like "Don't Wanna Fall In Love", "SummertimeSoul", and "Sex & Super Smash Bros." which was accompanied by a giant Pikachu mascot suit. He even made time for Brick to own the stage while KYLE ran off stage for 10 minutes, Brick and the drummer, SuperDuperKwudi played a DJ set with incredible drums as they played a rendition of N.E.R.D's "Everybody Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom)". KYLE's set was decorated with a Super Mario theme that would have made my 9-year-old self shit his pants. You could see how KYLE's childhood that was surrounded by Nintendo games influenced his current music and art. KYLE ended his set with one of his more pop/summer anthems which is appropriately titled"Endless Summer Symphony". He then brought out an enormous surf board and literally crowd surfed over the crowd while still jamming out to the song. It truly was a surreal moment. I got to meet him after Hoodie's set and am pleased to report he is as down to earth and happy as his music makes him seem. He took time to visit with me and my best friend's little brother who we brought as his birthday present (he is an enormous KYLE fan) and actually had a conversation despite the swirling hoard of fans around him.
Act 4: Hoodie Allen
I'm gonna level with you. I've never really been a huge Hoodie Allen fan. I honestly went to this show to see KYLE and when he said he would visit with fans at the end of the show. We decided to stick around for Hoodie's set instead of watching half of it and calling it a night early before heading back to Maine from Boston.
Let me tell you why I'm not a huge Hoodie fan first of all. I dig summer music, the happy vibes and catchy tunes. And while I do classify Hoodie as summer music, I find his lyrics corny and that he usually just appeals to white girls. And while I will not call him a "White Girl Rapper" I will call him a "Pop Rapper". While Childish Gambino could be classified as a "White Girl Rapper", I find depth in Gambino that I do not see in Hoodie. It's hard to like an artist that is so one-sided and appeals to the group that Hoodie is most liked by.
Usually, when you go to a concert, you either fall in love with an artist more than you thought was possibly or they put on a really shitty show and you start liking them less than you did before (this happened with Weezer for me personally. But with Hoodie Allen, I really felt neutral about the whole thing. Which is kind of new for me. I didn't necessarily like him more or less than I did when I entered the House of Blues in Boston. He was charismatic and talked to the crowd. And even had dope moments where the lights went out and he appeared at the back of the venue for his song "Cake Boy" (which is actually one of my favorite Hoodie songs) and proceeded to throw full cakes at the crowd. Or when he threw a giant inflatable raft on the crowd and had the crowd carry him to the front and back of the venue. There was confetti and monitors, and a lot of shit that is really impressive for an artist who is still doing everything by himself without a label. He put on an entertaining show for sure. But the music itself was not enough to make me buy a CD of his after the show like I did for Bryce Vine. Hoodie is a natural performer but he hasn't made music in a very long time that impresses me or does anything for me besides make me think "Hey, this is pretty catchy".
On the upside, I did get to meet one of my favorite rappers, and enjoyed a pretty dope set by almost all artists (I'm talking about you, Gnash.) And got back home by 2:00 AM to wake up to a snow day the next day. So all in all, a pretty incredible experience.
Let me tell you why I'm not a huge Hoodie fan first of all. I dig summer music, the happy vibes and catchy tunes. And while I do classify Hoodie as summer music, I find his lyrics corny and that he usually just appeals to white girls. And while I will not call him a "White Girl Rapper" I will call him a "Pop Rapper". While Childish Gambino could be classified as a "White Girl Rapper", I find depth in Gambino that I do not see in Hoodie. It's hard to like an artist that is so one-sided and appeals to the group that Hoodie is most liked by.
Usually, when you go to a concert, you either fall in love with an artist more than you thought was possibly or they put on a really shitty show and you start liking them less than you did before (this happened with Weezer for me personally. But with Hoodie Allen, I really felt neutral about the whole thing. Which is kind of new for me. I didn't necessarily like him more or less than I did when I entered the House of Blues in Boston. He was charismatic and talked to the crowd. And even had dope moments where the lights went out and he appeared at the back of the venue for his song "Cake Boy" (which is actually one of my favorite Hoodie songs) and proceeded to throw full cakes at the crowd. Or when he threw a giant inflatable raft on the crowd and had the crowd carry him to the front and back of the venue. There was confetti and monitors, and a lot of shit that is really impressive for an artist who is still doing everything by himself without a label. He put on an entertaining show for sure. But the music itself was not enough to make me buy a CD of his after the show like I did for Bryce Vine. Hoodie is a natural performer but he hasn't made music in a very long time that impresses me or does anything for me besides make me think "Hey, this is pretty catchy".
On the upside, I did get to meet one of my favorite rappers, and enjoyed a pretty dope set by almost all artists (I'm talking about you, Gnash.) And got back home by 2:00 AM to wake up to a snow day the next day. So all in all, a pretty incredible experience.
What Did We Learn?
KYLE and Bryce Vine put 100% into their performance and music.
Hoodie is a natural performer
Gnash is nothing special
Hoodie is a natural performer
Gnash is nothing special