It was raining. And despite the forecasts predicting exactly that, no weather broadcast could quite prepare punters for the water that plummeted from the sky that evening (15 October).
I and seemingly every other ticket holder arrived early; the line-up extended hundreds of metres beyond the single file entry worming into The Riverstage gates.
We inched our way forward over the course of an hour, devastatingly missing 6lack’s performance, 'PRBLMS' echoing down the cue.
Migos kept the crowds waiting, DJ Durel eventually surfaced armed with a string of hip hop ballads. Snippets of tracks like Lamar's 'HUMBLE' and 'Mask Off' by Future notably amplified the atmosphere to levels deemed worthy of the trio's entrance: all bling and funky jackets.
2017 record ‘Culture’s 'Get Right Witcha' proved a solid start; the crowd was thrilled, effortlessly reciting the lyrics while thrashing through the mosh pit, middle fingers up, 'f*$% the system'.
'Fight Night' is a shining beacon from Migos' early releases; their baby-faced debuts can be cringe-worthy at times though this packed a punch (no pun intended) production-wise and boasted plenty of entertainment value too. The projected film clip depicting a boxing match gave me a taste of testosterone's anger-fuelling energy spikes; watching and listening, I felt fired up.
Featured artist 2 Chainz may not have made an appearance but ‘Deadz’ didn’t fail to leave an impression; massive song, a glowing example of the trio’s new heights. Even so, 2013 classic ‘Hannah Montana’ still brought stellar value beyond nostalgia, ‘so bad it’s good’, but so good it undermined the bad.
Despite only marking the halfway point, the set arguably peaked with ‘T-Shirt’. Perhaps a biased opinion, being one of my favourite Migos tracks, but the exhilaration here felt unparalleled.
Back to back bangers as ‘Slippery’ followed in smooth succession, before ‘Bad And Boujee’ made its glorious debut. The irony of ‘rain drop, drop top’ continued to patter on the heads of punters as Migos introduced the song grandly, no shame in emphasising its success.
The performance finished relatively flat with Travis Scott collaboration ‘Kelly Scott’, the trio exited, echoing short goodbyes comprised of very few words.
The set was short but sharp as knives and while initially I wanted another sliver, my opinion has since shifted, eight songs were enough. Admittedly, it was surprisingly karaoke at times; so-called ‘back-up’ tracks very much in the foreground as the three interchangeably but sparingly rapped over the top.
And while DJ Durel brilliantly boosted excitement levels pre-set the trio’s later attempts to hype the crowd were poor. But as much as I've tossed up whether these underwhelming characteristics should be more so attributed to lack of talent, or lack of vigour amid a lengthy career, there’s still no denying the supremacy of their sound.
