On Sunday,February 27th, I had the absolute pleasure of seeing some of my favorite alternative hip-hop legends—Boldy James, The Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt, and Action Bronson.
Boldy James, one of the founding members of the rap collective Griselda, picked up the pace with punchy bass lines and impromptu freestyles with support from underground producer, The Alchemist. Boldy James definitely gave me a LOT of energy for my all-time favorite, Earl Sweatshirt.
Not to gatekeep, but I have been a fan of Earl Sweatshirt from the very start—the sole reason I came to this show was to see Earl Sweatshirt (and to recreate my viral TikTok but that’s a different story).
After opening with a couple of sizable hits such as “E. Coli” and “2010”, the energy in the crowd was the lowest I’ve ever experienced. It was genuinely like watching the Black Beatles trend of 2016 in real-time. With my many failed attempts of starting not one but MULTIPLE mosh pits, I left the middle of the crowd to hopefully rejuvenate myself for Action Bronson.

Earl Sweatshirt on the ÑBA Leather World Tour, 2022

I thought MAYBE Action Bronson would liven up the crowd a little more—I mean he’s genuinely pretty funny and from all the Action Bronson songs I knew, I thought he was a little more upbeat than the last two acts. I was wrong.
Even with watching the show from the back, there was just an overall lack of energy in the venue, even with Bronson’s witty bars about hating Star Wars (because “Indiana Jones is better”).
Overall, I genuinely really like all the rappers that were on the bill, I just don’t think they have the energy level or lively fan base to make it an enjoyable concert. Is their music good to sit in your room and sink into your bed to? Absolutely. Is their music good to get a crowd of 1,000+ people excited and entertain my extremely small attention span? Absolutely not.
Next time, I think the tour would be better suited for a smaller, more intimate venue where the energy can bounce off of the walls a bit and overall get their niche fan bases a little more excited.