Childish Gambino //
Fox Theater Oakland
May 6th, 2014 //
Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, returned to a sold out Fox Theater Tuesday for a rescheduled performance after a last minute cancellation February 27th. That original performance was to be the opening night of the current tour, but the show could not go on “due to hardware issues beyond my control.”
Sounds of a dial-up modem attempting to connect to the Internet were the first sounds heard, failing over and over again with many busy tones. Finally, a connectivation sound broke through the static hiss, immediately revving the room up. Walking onto stage mimicking his album cover zombie face, Gambino took a seat at the piano to start the show with ease, but things quickly turned to the high energy one would expect.
Gambino bounced around the stage, even taking fans’ cell phones for on stage selfies. The lights and production rivaled big household names and delivered in every way possible. Soul, hip hop and the occasional space odyssey brought Oakland the very best of what they love about Childish Gambino.
Following the lead from his most recent album Because the Internet, the current tour includes a live feed from his ‘leaked’ snapchat account to a large screen behind the stage. This allowed fans in attendance to post messages on screen and scribble on-screen messages to other fans. ‘Bino himself used the medium to spoil Game of Thrones and other pop culture TV nuggets. Playing to a mega-youthful crowd, it just makes sense for Glover to lace ‘digital age of information’ aspects into his performance.
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