Oklahoma has been getting spoiled in terms of artists who have performed this month as we were treated with being the first show on Childish Gambino’s new world tour Sunday, Aug. 11. This is his last tour as he will be retiring from making music.
When I saw he was coming to Paycom, I knew I had to go because I have been listening to him for so long and has always been one of my favorite artists. We originally had nosebleed seats, but when we sat down, the employees told us our seats got upgraded to section 205! The opener was Willow. I didn’t know many of her songs but she sounded great.
Childish Gambino finally came out at around 9:30 p.m., and it was amazing from start to finish. His visuals for the concert were stunning. He said that he had used technology that he has always wanted to use before but never could. The first part of his set was mainly from his newest album “Bando Stone & The New World” with some older ones sprinkled in.
During this set, he had visual and vocal performances from other artists like Flo Milli and Yeat, which was cool even though they were not actually there. After that, he had a little intermission where he talked about the band and how long they had been with him.
Then, he played his best songs in my opinion. He started with “Me and Your Mama” and went to other songs like “Les,” which is my favorite. He also performed “Heartbeat,” “Sober,” and “Bonfire.”
He also played “Do Ya Like,” which surprised me because it’s an unreleased song, but I was so happy to hear it because it’s also one of my favorites. This is when the concert got exciting as he played all his old music, and it was amazing. Then he gave the crowd a choice if we wanted to hear “Urn” or “Saturday,” which are songs he doesn’t normally sing at his shows. He ended doing “Saturday.”
Directly after this song, Gambino did what I think was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen live when he performed “Redbone.” He absolutely killed this performance.
After this, it seemed like the show was over as he walked off and the credits for the concert started to play on the screen. My friend and I decided to stay though and I’m glad we did because the lights got dark and, on the screen, it read “Lithonia” and the crowd got excited once again.
As Gambino got near the end of this song, I got a little emotional as I realized this was the beginning of the end for hum. I knew one of my favorite artists would be retiring soon and it was a sad moment for me. I would say this is a top three concert I’ve been too. I think everyone should go to one of the shows on this tour before it’s all over.
Austin Jackson is a second-year history education major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
