Among a sea of young adults in tank tops and winter coats, I stood outside the Pageant in four degree weather with my friends 30 minutes past the scheduled opening of the doors. Above our heads flashed the large electronic sign reading: G-EAZY, SOLD OUT.
Upon entering, we could hear the first opener, DJ Cuddy from radio station 104.1, spinning tracks with bass that shook the sidewalk. We gave the man at the door our tickets, and walked eagerly into the concert hall.
The first on-stage performer was local St. Louis rapper, Marc Goone. As soon as he stepped onto the stage, people around me started addressing the fact that no one in the building actually knew who the guy was. Despite the crowd’s initial confusion and lack of enthusiasm, Goone got the party started with some fast paced freestyle verses about himself. In no time, the crowd began to cheer him on as he shot a hand held glitter cannon into the crowd.
Behind a cloud of glitter left from Goone’s cannon blast, another underground hip-hop artist named Kool John proceeded to perform. Performing third was 19-year-old upcoming female R&B artist that goes by the name of Kehlani. Though her backup dancers were a bit more entertaining than herself, since her voice was a bit under par when live, yet the audience still seemed to be entertained. Considering that this was her first tour, she didn’t do too bad.
Last to hit the stage before the main act was Jay Ant, another artist that rose confusion in the audience. His performance seemed to drag on, and the act was not worth what we paid.
After the last performance finally ended, the crowd’s energy reached a peak. Curtains closed up and the shadows of the tech crew setting the stage danced across the fabric.
Not even 10 minutes later the lights dimmed and the curtains rolled open. G-Eazy (Gerald Gillum) stood on a lit platform with a screen behind it, that flashed graphics and scenes from music videos. Over the sound of the crowd’s cheers, he introduced himself pretty quickly and got the crowd roaring when the first beats of his song “Monica Lewinsky” began to play.
After a few songs, Gillum stopped to tell his story about the night before, and how his tour bus burst into flames, before transitioning into one of his more popular songs, “Tumblr Girl.” As soon as the song was finished, Gillum proceeded to sing “Almost Famous.” Despite the absence of featured artists, including artists Hoodie Allen, Skizzy Mars, Rick Ross and many more, Gillum pulled it off and left the crowd screaming for more.
As soon as Gillum walked off, the crowd began to chant powerfully for him to return back on stage. People rose on each other’s shoulders shouting “one more song,” and everyone in the pit began to jump up and down and clap. To the delight of the crowd, he didn’t just sing one. His first encore song “I Mean It,” one of the most popular songs off his 2014 album These Things Happen, shook the building and had the whole crowd singing along to the track. After the song finished, Gillum went right into singing one of his older songs, “Loaded,” satisfying fans that liked him from the start.
Now, normally when the last song is sang at the Pageant, confetti falls from the ceiling and all is grand. However, a single piece fell from the roof and landed near the stage, due to an unfortunate technical difficulty. Despite the situation, the end of the concert was still satisfying, (although he did walk off awkwardly after noticing the confetti wasn’t going to drop), and seeing the performance overall was worth freezing an extra 30 minutes for.