SHIFTER’s Kevin Bourne says Lil Yachty has shown growth and maturity as a performer in his The Field Trip tour review.
Tonight, Lil Yachty brought his The Field Trip tour to Toronto, performing in front of a sold out crowd at History. Opening the show were the Concrete Family, made up of Camo, Draft Day, Moe, and Karrahbooo. Then Nick Hakim took to the stage, performing his brand of laid back, trans-inducing, almost psychedelic music.
Before the show even started, there was a bit of an uproar when Drake and Adonis entered the balcony area. SZA would also discreetly enter the balcony to take in the show which was divided into three parts with different moods and vibes. Yachty opened the show with the soulful and groovy “drive ME crazy!” with its 1970’s inspiration. He then showed off his vocal range with “the ride”, eventually ending with a cover of Phil Collins‘ “In The Air Tonight”. Impressive (and almost shocking) but impressive.
What you notice right out the gate is the instrumentation. Unlike many performers of his generation, he was accompanied by a live band; a woman-only live band to be exact. The second thing you notice is the quality of his vocals. If there were a theme for the first part of the show it would be Lil Yachty the singer, drawing from soul and pop music. Yes, he uses autotune, but you can hear the vibrato and strength in his voice letting you know he can still hold a note without auto-tune. His vocals along with the live band led to an impressive and quality opening.
After a wardrobe change, Yachty, now wearing all black, went back to his hip-hop roots. With his band now off stage, Lil Boat went through his hip-hop catalogue, performing his biggest songs from the past seven years, including “Yacht Club”, “Nbayoungboat”, “Coffin”, “Broccoli” and “iSpy”. In this part of the show, the instrumentation and soul gave way to screaming, jumping and everything else we’d expect from a Lil Yachty show. If was a brief reminder of why, years ago, us old heads thought artists like Yachty were killing hip-hop.
Then while Yachty was preparing for the final part of show, Drake treated the hometown crowd to an impromptu balcony performance of “Meltdown” and “Rich Flex”, whipping them into a frenzy. He told the crowd he just came from the studio, putting the final touches on For All The Dogs. With SZA in the building, does that mean we’re getting more SZA tracks on the new album?
The third part of the show was dedicated to Rock music from his latest album Let’s Start Here. Common sense would say to end your show with some of your biggest bangers and anthems, but this was actually a fitting end. Refocusing on live instrumentation, with a band member performing a beautiful piano solo that led to a psychedelic sounding run created a sense of grandeur. The sound was big and epic; something worthy of Woodstock or a large festival stage.
Overall, we have to say we were thoroughly impressed. It was SHIFTER’s first time seeing Yachty perform live since 2017. He has shown growth and has evolved into a very good live performer who is capable of delivering a solid show from beginning to end. Many years ago, it would’ve been hard to consider someone like Yachty an artist, but in seeing him live again, there’s no doubt that what Yachty did on that stage was true artistry.
Kevin Bourne is SHIFTER’s Toronto-based editor and Senior Entertainment Reporter focusing on Black music and film & TV. He was named one of 310 international voters for the 81st Golden Globe Awards by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and a Tomatometer-Approved Critic by Rotten Tomatoes.
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