Lineup: Chance the Rapper/Francis and the Lights ("The Magnificent Coloring World Tour")
Venue: Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, Boston, MA
Date: September 29th, 2016
Francis and the Lights: Outside of a middling amount of hype stemming from his recent collab with Kanye West and his appearance on Chance's "Summer Friends", I had zero idea what Francis and The Lights was all about prior to seeing him live. Even with no idea of what to expect going into, I was still shocked by his sound. This dude basically sounds like if Phil Collins had a twisted millennial lovechild that was obsessed with strange indie-meets-reggae beats. I can say confidently say that I've never heard anything like it before and I'd be totally fine with not hearing anything like it ever again.
While his music left me bewildered, his dance moves were fucking majestic. This motherfucker spent the duration of his half-set proving that he was a certified lord of the dance with an array of enchanting moves that ranged from a full body flail that could've easily been confused for a seizure to pseudo-twerking with slightly less booty popping and more pelvic thrusts. The sheer grace of his dance moves provided the set with a much-needed dose of elegance and played a crucial role in making this performance worthwhile on the whole.
Chance the Rapper: In just a few years in the national spotlight, Chance the Rapper has established himself as the one of the most unique and unusual voices in music. After last night, I can confirm that his live show takes that special brand of weirdness and elevates it to an extreme, borderline unreal level.
Chance's live show played out like a live hip-hop episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. The show prominently featured puppets (most notably a lion named Carlos that he interacted with for a majority of the set and a full puppet choir on "How Great", "Finish Line/Drown" and "Summer Friends") and the video screen was a non-stop clusterfuck of bright colors and cartoon imagery. The audience ate up Chance's happy acid trip stage show, but I couldn't help but cringe at how corny it was to watch a grown-man talk to a fucking puppet in-between songs for 90 minutes. I respect the fact that Chance is in a really positive place in his life right now and wants his live show to reflect his internal joy, but having a strange, cheesy stage production like this significantly takes away from the overall quality of his live show.
Aside from the puppetry, Chance was pretty solid. The setlist was way too heavy on material from his underwhelming new mixtape Coloring Book and his decision to cut almost every song short was frustrating, but his rapping/singing was pretty much spot-on throughout the set and it's impossible to excessively hate on a dude who radiates positive energy like he does.
Given the disheartening lack of Acid Rap tracks present in his set, his guest spots from Action Bronson's "Baby Blue" and Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam" ended up being the night's highlights. Those verses are among my favorite he's ever done and it was a very pleasant surprise to hear them in a live setting. Diehard Chance fans are guaranteed to have a blast at this show, but I sadly didn't share the rampant enthusiasm that most of the other people leaving the venue had last night.
Scores:
Francis and the Lights 4/10
Chance the Rapper 7.5/10
Setlist:
Chance the Rapper:
Angels
Blessings
Pusha Man
Smoke Again
Coco Butter Kisses
Favorite Song
Brain Cells
Smoke Break
Juke Jam
Same Drugs
Baby Blue (Action Bronson cover)
The Way (Kehlani cover)
Ultralight Beam (Kanye West cover)
No Problem
Mixtape
All Night
D.R.A.M. Sings Special (actually sung by D.R.A.M.!)
Grown Ass Kid
Sunday Candy (Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment cover)
All We Got
How Great
Finish Line/Drown
Blessings (reprise)
Encore:
Summer Friends
Friends (Francis and the Lights cover) (w/Francis and the Lights)
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