Fans posted up in front of the stage knowing they wouldn’t be moving from their spots. People gathered in rows for beers, t-shirts, and the outside taco truck. On the ceiling two large propellers worked overtime inside the wooded structure to keep the humid room tolerable. When the doors opened, the venue was filled almost immediately.
#Anderson paak hold the line free#
Besides, free music and free beer, what was there to lose? But dedicated fans stood outside the anonymous brick building hoping that by some miracle they’d get in. The tickets to the show sold out in less than 10 minutes, the line to get in stretched over two blocks, and even VIP tickets weren’t guaranteed entry. This year they arguably hosted one of hottest acts in the game right now – Anderson. Then on UK tour until 6 May.Over the last few years, the House of Vans venue in Chicago has been putting on some of best concerts throughout the summer. Paak pogos on his bench, leading the chant of: “Don’t stop now / Keep dreaming.” Corny, maybe, but that’s the truth his life has taught him, and he sells it tonight with a fervour and a flair that’s irresistible.Īt O2 Arena, London, 18, 19, 21, 22 April. Paak’s story centre stage tonight, culminating in The Dreamer, the closing track from his breakthrough LP Malibu, the triumphalist, gospelised funk building and building as. So much so, it’s almost no surprise when Syd from the Internet bounds on stage for an impromptu run through her anthem Girl. His ballads – fevered, carnal, relatable – roil with the kind of yearning revelations that hit you when you’re wasted in a taxi at 3am, racing to the next party, while his bangers are smeared with enough dreamy synths to blur the line between the club and the bedroom. Paak’s pop-savvy discipline keeps him forever trained on the song. While his unfussily virtuoso Free Nationals occasionally wig out into gleeful fusioneering like kindred spirit Thundercat. Stretching the laser-guided pop of Luh You into a groove-laden epic littered with false endings and euphoric peaks, it’s clear that maximum effort at all times is his approach. Paak delivers his inspirational tales with flourishes of Chicken Grease funk, occasionally humping the air and training his marksman-like aim at the dance floor. Paak testifying on the latter song, “I believe in fate”, with conviction – and why wouldn’t he?
In these tracks, struggle is inevitable but triumph is always within reach. Paak’s a Grammy-nominated “overnight success” who’s collaborated with Dre, Kendrick Lamar and TI, often singing his own hard luck/good fortune tale tonight, be it the triumphant swagger of Come Down, or the carpe diem philosophising of Am I Wrong. Paak gambled their future on the music he’d been recording in his downtime, luck smiling in the form of Shafiq Husayn of R&B collective Sa-Ra, who offered the one-time music teacher a job and a place to stay while he finished his debut album. After losing his job on a marijuana farm, the singer found himself homeless, with a young family in tow. Paak’s crisis was also the making of him. In the same way Kanye West was fuelled by the sting of rejection the feted producer felt when he first recast himself as a rapper, shaping his bruised, score-settling breakthrough records – Anderson. It’s an unassumingly hungry performance from an artist who knows what defeat tastes like and, now tasting success, is firmly focused on keeping it.
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