On Friday, September 6, 2013, the Cud
Life Tour made its second stop in San Diego. As an avid Cudi fan, I had been
anticipating this event for months, actually cleaning gutters and pulling weeds
to afford the ticket. Now that it was finally here, I found myself a little
nervous. I had never actually been to a concert before, so I had no idea what
to expect. Except the weed of course, I was definitely expecting lots of people
to be smoking marijuana, and I was not disappointed. Whether I inhaled any
smoke or not is unknown at this time, but either way this was quite an
adventure. Come along for the ride.
Friday morning I realized, to my
dismay, that I was lacking a shirt that I would really feel good about wearing
to the concert. I’m not one to stress about my appearance, but everyone likes
to looks nice, right? Besides, if I got pulled onstage I had to fit the bill. Anyway,
$20 I found a great shirt at my friend’s store, Ten Racks (check him out!).
Check. I couldn’t believe that I had spent that much money on a shirt, let
alone bought a shirt just for one event, but hey, I had to do this right.
I arrived at the arena about two
hours early, and already there was quite a long line. The dress code for the
girls seemed to be “as little as legally possible”, so I mostly checked my
Twitter feed and generally stared at my shoes. Occasionally I would look up and
search desperately for a face I knew, but it never materialized. Fortunately,
being the social butterfly I am, I cracked a few jokes with the people near me
in line as they stressed about how we would be searched and whether this would
compromise their stash of drugs. At one point we saw a group of skaters and
somebody realized that they were the Odd Future crew, which led to a panic
about if we should rush them and if the one security guard in our vicinity
could handle all of us. I continued to keep my eyes clear of the
fourteen-year-old thighs being advertised in full force.
Finally, I was inside. Upon entering I
asked a member of the arena’s security to help me find my seat. He shot me a
weird glance and replied “Anywhere, dawg. Sit anywhere.” It was my first
concert after all. When I was done embarrassing myself, I stood still for about
ten minutes debating whether or not I should go into the pit. It wasn’t very
full yet, and I figured it would be a lot more fun than sitting in the stands
since I was by myself. The pit it was. I noticed a few pretty girls in my area
and wondered if any of them would actually talk to me if I started a
conversation. I decided against trying and checked my phone for about fifteen
more minutes before a DJ appeared and the show started.
Things I immediately noticed about
the stage: large inflatable letters that spelled out “GOLF” and something very
large under a cover behind the DJ’s tower/turntable. We were asked about 30
times if we were ready for Cudi, to which we responded with raucous screams,
and applause, followed by the introduction of our first opening act, Logic. He was
an up-and-comer of considerable talent from Maryland who mostly told us how
crazy it felt to be there and showed off his quick tongue. It was a nice start.
Meanwhile, I had gathered the courage
to speak to one of the girls next to me, who was determined to move forward in
the pit. I decided that helping her get a good position would guarantee me a
date, so I did my best to be her lead-blocker. After logic there was a break
while they prepped the stage for Tyler, the Creator so the DJ played some hype
songs to keep the energy up. When you are extremely close to lots of other
people, few who are sober, you love these songs. You rap every word to these
songs. You dance along to these songs in your quarter-inch of elbow room. Time for
Tyler.
The most striking thing I noticed
about Tyler, the Creator was the response he got from people. That pretty girl I
was trying to help? As soon as the lights went down, she began to frantically
shove those around her, exclaiming that she would cry if she could not see him.
Minutes later, she was screaming every word of his songs and telling him how
nasty she was at the top of her lungs (By the way, he greeted us with ‘What’s
up, assholes?’ and asked if we were nasty. I’ve never been called an asshole so
many times in my life than in those 45 minutes). At one point, he announced that
he “fucking hated” some guy in a green hat that didn’t like his first song and
the crowd cheered fanatically. It was the lowest point of humanity that I have
ever witnessed. About halfway through his set, I grabbed the cross hanging
around my neck, just hoping to be safe when everyone inevitably started eating
each other. Tyler and his “fat friend Jasper” ended the set by tossing half of
a loaf of bread into the crowd. I had already been offered two blunts by this
time.
After Odd Future, we knew what time
it was. Soon, Kid Cudi would grace the stage and bless us all. That meant that
people REALLY wanted a better view, so the pit became a surging stampede of
bodies attempting to squeeze into small spaces that just kept getting smaller. A
few groups pushed ahead of me, which I thought nothing of, until a nearby trio
told me to stop being nice and letting people through. I assumed it was concert
etiquette to let people move forward, but apparently the opposite was true. Well,
after that I became The Enforcer, informing many a man that “We’re full, bro”
and knocking shoulders with the best of them. During that time, a tarp dropped
down to prevent us from seeing Cudi’s stage being set up. Well, the people in
the front didn’t like that very much. In seconds, they tore down the tarp,
which was attached to a truss hanging from the ceiling. Said truss swung
precariously just long enough to make us think that we were all going to die. After
a warning from security the music went back up and we waited…..and waited….and
waited….for about half an hour. The crowd got antsy (but mostly they just got
high) and soon angry. I was seriously questioning the worth of even being here.
Suddenly, the lights went down and
the intro music from “Indicud” began to play throughout the arena. We screamed
like little kids who had just heard the ice cream truck coming down the street.
There was no more shoving, no complaints; none of it (still weed though). Cudi
appeared, carrying a majestic red microphone. “Sorry about that, I had to take
a chill pill, pick up this suit, and then come back and fuck with you.” What
suit? THIS SUIT. We went crazy. He dove right in, starting with “Lord of the
Sad and Lonely”. The energy was like nothing I had ever felt. If Tyler was hate’s
embodiment, Cudi was everything else. You could literally feel his love flowing
from the stage, making us all better people. He sung old songs, he sung new
songs, he even freestyled over a beat that he produced just for the show. Fellow Cleveland rapper King Chip even showed up and did a few songs with the Moon Man. I had
stopped wondering if this was worth my money a long time ago.
Cudi gave us all of him. His goofiness
(he sung “hot girl with the poster” for a fan by the same given name) kept us
all laughing, making us believe that we were all his best friend. He gave out
plenty of “I love you too, dude”s and constantly checked to make sure that we
were enjoying ourselves. Halfway through the show he moved one of the meteors surrounding
his on-stage Fortress of Cuditude (don’t worry, just Styrofoam) center stage to
sit and talk with us. To tell us he loved us. To tell us it would be okay. “I
need this energy in my life. Y’all keep me alive. Y’all keep me alive, and I help
you out. That’s what this is. Just one big therapy session.” His sincerity was
more than apparent. It was tangible. The experience can’t be quantified in
words, but I can tell you that it changed my perspective quite a bit. He left
the stage (after leaving once and then coming back out to ceaseless chants of “CUDI!
CUDI! CUDI!”) by singing us an altered version of his newest single, “Going to
the Ceremony”. “Til I see you again”, he sang, “Be good until I see you again. San
Diego til I see you again”. He assured us that he’ll be back soon. I certainly
hope that he will.
THE CUD LIFE,
YOU KNOW WHAT WE BOUT
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