Let me preface this concert review with two items:
- To my chagrin, I missed out on seeing Kid Cudi’s openers: Logic and Big Sean. I was able to see Logic in the summer of 2012 during a show on his own tour, and he was great, so I would definitely recommend seeing him if you can. In addition, even though Big Sean may have released a track that may be my biggest guilty pleasure in recent memory with “10 2 10”, seeing him perform it was not necessarily high on my priority list.
- I am admittedly very biased when it comes to any opinion regarding Kid Cudi. His mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, and albums, MOTMI and MOTMII, basically encapsulate my entire college experience thus far. I have shared some amazing times with friends and family while listening to Cudder’s music so that is what I automatically associate with it. With that being said, I definitely tried to tame my inner fanboy and subjectively judge my surroundings during the show.
The Cud Life Tour made its stop in Toronto, Canada on October 9th at the Air Canada Center. This would be my second time seeing the Man on the Moon live as I caught him last time he came to Toronto in 2011. I was slightly intrigued to see how it would contrast to this show as he was booked for a much larger venue this time around. As the lights dimmed and the set design was revealed, the opening to Kid Cudi’s newest album, Indicud, blared through the speakers. Cudi gloriously rose through the smoke revealing his custom made skin-tight space suit. The atmosphere in the arena was electrifying as Cudi victoriously stared and calmly smirked back at the crowd.
Kid Cudi’s first words to the crowd was all about letting go of all the trivial issues going on in everyone’s lives for the night, which served as a perfect segue into the Indicud hit: “Unfuckwittable”. Cudi’s raspy, yet smooth voice translates well in a live setting as he is more than capable of some high quality crooning on his more sing-songy tracks. He engaged the crowd with his distinct performance style which can be described as a slightly flamboyant rock star with a bad ass hip hop flare.
Indicud was definitely well represented, especially in the first half of the show. As much as I would have loved to have heard a full Kid Cudi concert of all his material pre WZRD, I still found myself uncontrollably yelling out the lyrics along with the crowd around me. If I knew how many tracks he would perform off his newest LP going into the show, I, admittedly, would not be as psyched as I was. However, seeing Cudi perform the select cuts of Indicud really gave me a new-found appreciation for the album.
There were some awkward moments where I really was not sure whether Cudder was purposefully improvising sections of his songs or whether he had genuinely forgot his lyrics and was trying to recover. It was really hard to tell because Cudi hardly rapped any full verses throughout his whole set. As great as his singing voice sounded, there were moments in the show where I would have loved for him to just spit every lyric to his verses with high amounts of energy. He would even stay silent on numerous punch lines of his or sometimes even full bars on his more rap heavy hits like “Down & Out” and “Cudi Zone.”
Nevertheless, the energy he fed into the crowd was undeniable. As the end of the show loomed over my head, my legs were sore from jumping and my voice was almost already lost. As Kid Cudi left the stage, the crowd feverishly chanted his name for an encore. As my mind raced to guess what smash song he would play as his last song, he started off with a song that was completely unknown to me. I was left confused and deduced that it must be a song off of WZRD and was pretty disappointed at the song’s placement as his last farewell to the crowd. I looked around the arena and instantly saw that I was not alone in my sentiments as the energy of the crowd was considerably low. Things made a quick change for the better as Cudi called out Big Sean to come out to perform “First Chain” off of Big Sean’s newest album, Hall of Fame.
All in all, the show had definitely met my incredibly high expectations. I always judge how much how I truly liked an artist’s live show by how much I want to listen to their material the day after the show. I have definitely been revisiting all of Kid Cudi’s hits days after his performance and I will definitely look to try and get tickets for Cudi’s next encounter with Toronto whenever he decides to come back.
| Setlist | |
| 1 | Resurrection of Scott Mescudi |
| 2 | Unfuckwittable |
| 3 | Down & Out |
| 4 | Soudtrack to my Life |
| 5 | Lord of the Sad and Lonely |
| 6 | Immortal |
| 7 | New York City Rage Fest |
| 8 | Girls |
| 9 | GHOST! |
| 10 | Just What I Am |
| 11 | Marijuana |
| 12 | Erase Me |
| 13 | Mr. Rager |
| 14 | Man on the Moon (The Anthem) |
| 15 | Cudi Zone |
| 16 | Memories (David Guetta Remix) |
| 17 | Up Up and Away |
| 18 | Pursuit of Happiness |
| 19 | Pursuit of Happiness (Steve Aoki Remix) |
| 20 | Song off WZRD? (Encore #1) |
| 21 | First Chain /w Big Sean (Encore #2) |
Setlist may not be 100% accurate.
The opinions and views expressed here are the opinions of the designated author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or views of any of the individual members of Dead End Hip Hop.
The WZRD song is called “Going to the Ceremony”