Concert Review: Playboi Carti

Playboi Carti continues his reputation of being tardy but successfully compensates with a high energy performance.

The night was young when we arrived at The Revention Music Center. My friend and I thought we were doing ourselves a favor by arriving an hour early; how naive we were. The waiting line wrapped around the venue with no signs of anticipation. Thankfully, the doors promptly opened at 7:00 p.m.

Within half an hour of entering, the first floor reeked of hypebeasts, marijuana, and vomit. Seriously. Some kid threw up before the show even started.

Photo by Darshak C.

With little to no music to support the energy and eagerness of the crowd, they began to take matters into their own hands. Moshing without music might seem senseless to most, but hey, to each their own.

For an hour and a half, the audience was forced to patiently wait until finally, the redundant background music that antagonized our eardrums turned into bearable modern tunes.

The DJ took the stage for approximately 30 minutes. At this point, there was a small pit around the vomit from the kid earlier and mine, as well as everyone else’s patience, was being tested.

Another musicless hour shifted the once hype energy, into a poignant audience. Half of the crowd still had gathered enough energy to boo and chant Carti while the other half decided to take a seat on the alcohol-infused floor. My lower back and legs began to give out and at a certain point, I forgot I was even attending a concert. Every pain receptor in me sent a single message to my brain. “Where the hell is Carti?”

There is hope.

BAM! The lights shut off. A purge-like siren pierced my ears. “EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM” read the giant screen on stage.

Photo by Amy Serratos

Immediately, the fans who were once booing began screaming with one hand in the air and the other capturing videos on their phones. The tired-some fans sitting on their butts jumped to the sky trying to get a glimpse of the headliner.

Time Stamp: 10:00PM

Carti hopped on stage screaming his opening hook to “R.I.P Fredo.” As brief as it was, the audience completely forgot about the pain and suffering Carti had just put them through. All that mattered was that the anarchy driven rapper gave them his all, which he did indeed.

The vomit-pit closed quickly as fans couldn’t help but scream alongside Carti and hold onto their sweaty peers as if their life depended on it. As Carti went through old hits like “New Choppa” and “Magnolia,” the energy intensified. When I saw the crowd grow closer and tighten, and with me being the claustrophobic that I am, it was my cue to head to the back. However, my dear friend decided to take on what seemed like the entire world.

Carti surprisingly performed a handful of tracks from his mixtape Playboi Carti. He didn’t skip over any songs featuring his pal Lil Uzi Vert, such as “Lookin” and “Wokeuplikethis.” Carti kept each track extremely brief, rarely finishing a single song in its entirety. He performed tracks from Die Lit as well, such as “RIP,” “Flatbed Freestyle,” and “Long time.”

Thoughts?

Besides taking ages to perform, Carti definitely had an impactful performance. He played tracks most of his fans wanted to hear. Pulling a fan on stage to dance alongside him and even crowd surfing proved he didn’t hold back. With that being said, the concert would have been much more enjoyable if there were actual openers. Although his energy escalated throughout his performance, I would not call it an “efficient” performance considering 10 minutes of it consisted of gunshots, another 15 consisted of him shouting “Open up the motha-fu***** pit!,” and the last 35 performing extremely brief tracks. I wish he had performed more tracks from Die Lit, such as “Lean 4 Real” and “Poke it Out,” but maybe he’ll give those a chance the next time he returns to Houston.

Be sure to follow Playboi Carti as he continues to progress as a young musician and fashion idol.

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Photos by Amy Serratos