Promoted as a tour that brings together two ostensibly different ends of the modern rap spectrum, namely the radio-friendly, frat-friendly strains of Kid Cudi and Tyler, The Creator, best known as the face of Odd Future and, here, the representative of the underground (although the real heads were at the B L A C K I E show across town). In a strange twist of fate though, their Milwaukee stop invited as many comparisons between local venues as between the quasi co-headliners. The show was moved from the Rave to the U.S. Cellular Arena “due to the nature of Kid Cudi’s production” and while hip-hop shows at the Rave aren’t exactly a treat, usually an audiophile’s worst nightmare, tonight the mismanaged old Eagles Club seemed preferable to the strangely sterile confines of the U.S. Cellular Arena, which feels like the exercise yard of some dystopian prison, especially once the nature of Cudi’s “production” was finally revealed.
After a brief set from newly-minted Def Jam MC Logic, and after some roadies had inflated the giant letters G, O,L and F, Tyler, The Creator hit the stage and soon asked if there were any black people in the building (although not in so many words). The answer was “a few, but not many,” as the crowd consisted mainly of bros, with backwards baseball hats, cargo shorts and chintzy gold chains as far as the eye could see. The audience, enthusiastic as they were, didn’t seem to know what to make of Tyler, his blasé attitude or his eclectic, energetic set of weirdo horrorcore that included, among other things, “Cowboy” from his most recent album, Wolf, the Odd Future deep cut “We Got Bitches” and the Goblin track “Radicals.” As entertaining as the music was the couldn’t-care-less between song banter, which found Tyler mocking the girls flashing their breasts and borrowing a sombrero from an audience member.
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Between sets an enormous white curtain covered the proceedings, obscuring the preparation of Kid Cudi’s apparently epic stage show and, after an ominous voice announced some ground rules (no pictures or video? good luck with that), the sheet dropped dramatically to reveal–gasp!–a moonscape set that looked like it came from a Doctor Who garage sale, onto which Cudi, dressed like an extra from the 1982 Tron, emerged through a cloud of smoke. It was appropriate, most of the musical highlights, “Marijuana,” “Erase Me,” “Up Up & Away,” came from his pair of Man on the Moon albums, but mainly it felt like a lot of pointless, and poorly executed, flash designed to distract from the fact that the songs, and his glad-handing charm, came off as rote. It wasn’t terrible, just rather boring considering all the theatrics involved, but Tyler, The Creator’s raw charisma easily won out. So did the Rave, strange as it may seem.
