Before I get into the review of the concert, I want to preface it by saying that it was a good concert, I had a great time and am absolutely glad I went. The concert was really exciting throughout and featured some of Scott’s best songs. I think his 2023 album “UTOPIA” is a solid project all around and made for some exciting songs to see live. But there were a few things that could have been executed better that would have made his concert even better than it already was.
Teezo Touchdown, a feature on Scott’s track “MODERN JAM,” was the opening act for the concert. I’m not familiar with any of Teezo’s work besides the aforementioned “Modern Jam.” His performance was alright; he didn’t wow me, but I also didn’t see him as a major disappointment. I found his showing to be a bit of a tease, though. His last three songs were covers: “7969 Santa” by Drake, “Luckily I’m Having” by Don Toliver and “RUNITUP” by Tyler, the Creator. The tease was that before each song, he had the audience yell “Who?” and he proceeded to say the names of those artists. But he didn’t mention the fact that he was playing those songs, leading the audience to believe that they may be coming out on stage later since they all have songs with Scott.
One of my issues with the concert was the poor time management throughout. Teezo left the stage at about 8:45 p.m., and Scott didn’t come out until around 10 p.m. making the audience wait for over an hour. Getting to walk and explore Sofi Stadium is an experience in itself, but waiting for an hour was a bit overkill.
When Scott did come out though, he didn’t disappoint. His opening song was “HYAENA,” the opening track to “UTOPIA” and one of my favorites on the album. He proceeded to fly through his setlist due to how short his set had to be. Despite only being out for an hour, Scott flew through 22 different tracks, having to cut each one down a bit and only playing snippets of certain songs. The show was very fast-paced and exciting, but there were some songs that I wish he would have played for longer such as “90210,” which he only played the first minute of.
As a performer, Scott was great. He was very active on the stage, running across onto different platforms and hyping up the crowd throughout the show. The stage had an Indiana Jones-type vibe to it, as it was made to look like stone with some jungle, floating heads and more in the background. It was a long stage, and for all of the running and dancing he did, it had to have been quite the workout for Scott. Along with the activity of Scott on stage, he was very interactive with the crowd, even pulling two fans on stage at one point.
My biggest problem with the concert wasn’t even due to Scott and part of his performance, but the audio quality of Sofi Stadium. It was super hard to tell what Scott was saying or the lyrics he was singing throughout the whole show. I knew the lyrics to some of his more popular songs, but for the ones I was more unfamiliar with; I couldn’t even hear what was being sung or rapped. The audio was definitely loud enough but there was hardly any clarity to it. I’m not sure if that’s an issue with the venue or the audio system itself, but either way, it was a bummer that what he was saying wasn’t intelligible.
Despite the iffy audio and wait time, I enjoyed the night overall. Scott played almost all of his classics as well as the best tracks from “UTOPIA.” The only song I was hoping to hear that I didn’t was “Antidote,” one of my favorites by Scott and the first one I ever heard by him. The audience was into it the whole time, making the experience that much more enjoyable. The most hype part of the concert was when Scott brought out Playboi Carti to play “FEIN,” a track that features Carti. Though it was hard to make out Carti’s part, the process of him walking on stage and the crowd going ballistic was awesome in itself.
