 |
Is this a picture I took with my phone, or
a My Bloody Valentine album cover? You
tell me. |
I guess nobody else is going to write about the greatest confluence of writers in the history of Sad Moth, so I might as well. I went to Chance the Rapper at UW-Madison two Sundays ago with
fellow Sad Mothers Manny and Katie, as well as generally cool cats Nate
Kaufman, Ian, and Kendall. Mason the
slimy grimy slug was also in attendance.
In addition I bumped into Levi Heirlpin, John Mayers and Oscar Biggs.
“Smoke
Agaaaaaaaaain! Play Smoke
Agaaaaaaaaaaaain! … … … … … … … … … … … Smoke Agaaaaaaaaaaaain!” –John Mayers
Chance did not play “Smoke Again”.
He did play “Wonderful Everyday: Arthur”
“Dude, that was a
throwback! The Magic School Bus theme!” – overheard being said by some guy who
meant well, but was a cockmaster nonetheless.
 |
My poor view was made poorer by orders
of magnitude due to this shoulder-sitting
piece of human garbage. |
The stage was situated at the end of library mall, which was
fine, but the whole place was perfectly flat, which meant you couldn’t see very
much if you weren’t in the very front or tall.
I mean, I did get good looks intermittently, but I couldn’t tell you
what color pants Chance was wearing.
 |
| Though near the end I got pretty close |
Chance is a very good live performer. He is articulate and on point with his rhymes. He almost always remains at center stage with
his mic on the stand, instead of holding it, pacing around stage and
stuff. I think this emphasizes that he
is more of a front man for a band than a solo act. His presence fit his billing—he’s not Chance
the Rapper, he’s Chance the Rapper & The Social Experiment.
 |
At one point during the performance, the
binary star system of Alpha Centauri
suddenly appeared on stage. |
I guess my one criticism is that act seemed a little
inevitable. Chance has been working with
the same material for a while now, and people knew what songs were coming, and
he did them. I know his new album, Surf, which seems to be coming out any
time now, will finally expand upon and realize the potential people saw in Acid Rap and Chance’s other
mixtapes. If going to this performance
did anything for me, it got me more excited for what’s next.
