I Survived the Rodeo: Travi$ Scott and Young Thug at House of Blues

Photo by Rupal Mehta

Houston native rapper and producer Travi$ Scott held the homecoming performance of his Rodeo Tour at House of Blues on Monday night, alongside rapper Young Thug. According to an Instagram post from early Monday afternoon, Scott wanted this night to be the most legendary city on the tour; we showed him exactly that. The night consisted of three hours of nonstop, high-energy performances by both Scott and Thug. DJ and producer, Metro Boomin opened up the show with a great one hour set of club bangers and classic hits to get the audience ready for the big names to step out on the stage. Boomin acknowledged that rapper André 3000 was present at the venue as he played UGK’s hit song “International Players Anthem” for the audience to jam to.

Around 9:15 p.m., Metro asked the audience if they were ready to see Young Thug perform and, obviously, they were more than ready. Right then, the rapper jumped on stage and kicked off his portion of the set with some early mixtapes hits and went straight into his hit song “Hookah.” Thug’s energy was electric; he had the entire crowd jumped up and down for long periods of time, causing the entire venue to shake. He appreciated the love Houston was showing him and knew they were ready for Travi$ to grace the stage.

Travi$ Scott performing ‘Quintana’ (Photo by Rupal Mehta)

After a few seconds, Thug disappeared into the darkness of the blacked out stage and Travi$ Scott’s silhoutte appears. Scott grabbed an open water bottle and faced his back to the audience. He counted down in a rage “THREE, TWO, ONE” and gushed the water all over the audience as the beat of his Owl Pharoah song “Quintana” dropped. The audience went completely nuts at this point and I tried to hold on for dear life as House of Blues (the balcony included) vibrated with hard bass and almost felt like a mini earthquake. This consistent high energy continued for the next two and a half hours, as Thug and Scott alternated sets on stage before coming together for their collaboration “Skyfall” and “Mamacita.”

Scott performed songs from his first project Owl Pharoah such as “Uptown”,”Upper Echelon” and many more. Young Thug also got the audience hype with his performances of “Lifestyle” and “Danny Glover.” Houston rapper Trae tha Truth made a surprise appearance on Monday night when Travi$ said a “hometown homie” was present at House of Blues. The rapper showed the crowd a good time with his performance of  “Swang” and “Try Me”, which features Young Thug. It is safe to say that I have never experienced a concert like this one and am convinced that both rappers have unlimited energy inside of them.  My personal favorite performance of the night was Scott’s mellow Days Before Rodeo song “Drugs You Should Try It.” Monday night will be a permanent memory for Travi$ Scott and many fans in the wild audience I witnessed. Concerts like this do not come around very often, but when they do, Houston always knows how to turn it all the way up.

If you missed the action, check out Yahoo’s live stream of the concert, here.

By Rupal Mehta