Lil’ Yachty - The Field Trip Tour NY Concert Review
Without a doubt, Lil' Yachty's new album, Let's Start Here, is in my top five favorite albums of the year. This was my first time seeing him in concert, and he exceeded my expectations for sure.
He performed at Summer Stage in Central Park for the New York concert. He performed on September 22nd, the second show of the Field Trip Tour.
I highly recommend this concert if you're on the fence about going. The overall show was outstanding, and Yachty did a phenomenal job stepping outside his usual music abilities and taking on a more vocalist role in this album. Lil' Yachty's previous albums are in the Hip/hop and Rap category, and he's almost always rapping on a trap beat.
Let's Start Here was a revolutionary project from what he usually releases, and I hope to see more of this side of Yachty because it was executed beautifully. It's a fusion of psych-rock, funk, and hip-hop, and the album's theme is a deep dive into Yachty's perception of life and experiences that cultivate our mindsets as people.
The concert started with cool psychedelic-y videos on the stage screen and a climactic entrance into drive ME crazy!
The lead vocalist on the album is Diana Gordon, whose voice is that of an angel. Gordon is currently on her tour, which appears to be why she didn't come along on the Field Trip Tour, but I was thoroughly surprised to see Yachty's entire band was Black women.
In an interview with BET, Yachty talks about his reasoning for selecting this specific demographic to take on tour with him.
"I just think that women are so powerful. I feel like they rule the world. They are the most important aspect of this world, and they don't get enough credit or shine, especially Black women. So that was my aura behind it. I just wanted to showcase that women can shred just as good as men," said Yachty.
When the concert started and I saw the band was all women, I knew two things.
1.) This concert is about to be a 10/10.
2.) Lil' Yachty knows what the fuck he's doing.
The band consisted of Téja Veal as the bass player, Monica Carter as the drummer, Quenequia Graves as the guitarist, Kennedy Avery on the keyboard, and the two- vocalists Lea Grace and Romana R. Sainti.
The following three songs were my favorites on the album: the ride-, pRETTy, and The Alchemist. The show's production was way more thought out than I imagined, considering Yachty seems laid back, and the tickets were only $75 for general admission.
I was beyond impressed by the lights, the visuals on the screen, the instrumental breaks, and Yachty tuning into his vocalist side.
When he played The Alchemist, this was the first song people began getting rowdy and mosh pitting to. This was my first outdoor concert, where I stood close enough to the pit to get pushed around.
The Alchemist is my shit, so I was all for it, but many of those people in the crowd did not know a single word to this album, and I was giving them mad side-eye. Did they drop $80 to jump around and push people? Lit without a cause and shoving without a single lyric uttered?
Ideally, I would like to mosh pit again, but I prefer to partake in it with much more chanting. I digress (No, I don't. I'll address this again).
The following tracks were sHouLd I B?, sAy sOMETHING, In The Air Tonight (cover), and SOLO STEPPIN CRETE BOY. The show's second set was his older hits from various albums and his most popular features.
- Slide
- Split/Whole Time
- Get Dripped
- Yacht Club
- NBAYOUNGBOAT
- Flex Up
- Coffin
- From the D to the A
- Minnesota
- Broccoli
- iSpy
- TESLA
- Poland
- Strike (Holster)
- One Night
The second set was a little hard to bear for a couple of reasons. The show's production was still on par; Yachty paused the show occasionally to make the crowd spread out and reset the mosh pit so people weren't getting crammed at the front metal gates by the stage and speakers. He also did about two or three outfit changes, which was a nice touch.
My issue is the number of people who came to this concert who literally didn't know any of the lyrics. And before y'all say, "Some people attend concerts to hear the artist sing the songs," or "People can go to concerts just to enjoy the music and experience," I'll admit - that's a fair argument.
But at times, Yachty would flip his mic around and have the crowd sing the chorus of his popular songs like Broccoli, iSpy, and One Night, and the number of people in attendance and the number of people singing did not add up.
I was honestly shocked at how many people didn't iSpy, Broccoli, and One Night.
Considering those songs were released in 2015 and 2016, I'm convinced many people there were probably too young for that era of Yachty's career.
Regardless, music is timeless; they need to get on their Zoom next time.
Yachty even asked, "New York, are y' all tired tonight?" How embarrassing. I am not the biggest Yachty fan on the planet, but if I buy tickets to see an artist, I take the time to at least listen to their most popular songs and the album they're touring for so I can vibe.
Artists feed off the crowd's energy, and it's easy to forget that celebrities are humans with feelings. Still, if I put time and effort into an album and rehearsed tirelessly for a concert, I would not feel good about myself if a crowd came to the show just to stare blankly at me.
I arrived at the venue around 6:30 p.m., and Yachty didn't come on till about 8:30 p.m., so I had a little drinky drink, secured a good spot near the stage, and people-watched.
I hardly saw anybody else with the yellow 21+ wristband, and the overall behavior of the concertgoers near me seemed as though this was their first live show with no parental supervision.
The concert's first opening act was the Concrete music group consisting of Draft Day, DC2TRILL, Karrahboo, and Camo31. They're a relatively new group, but had a good set and played off each other's energy well.
After Concrete, Nick Hakim performed for the second opening act. Nick is a vocal artist; I consider him an indie artist. His sound reminded me of James Blake.
But during these opening acts, many young kids were booing and yelling at Lil' Yachty and being obnoxious. I understand that not every artist will be likable to everyone's taste, but both acts were advertised, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise that these performers would do a set before Yachty came out. I found it all to be so rude.
Nick Hakim was a good sport about the booing and exaggerated sighs. He said, "I know, guys, you'll be okay," or something like that.
There's universal concert etiquette that keeps concerts exciting and enjoyable for everybody and shows respect to the artist, but maybe that mindset is naive. People will do and say what they want at the end of the day.
Yachty ended the show with IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!!, THE zone~, WE SAW THE SUN! and the BLACK seminole.
The show ending on the BLACK seminole was an out-of-body experience. The extended intro from the band, the visuals from the screen went from calm to lucid and trippy, and the LED lights flashed in the trees from the park behind the stage created a vibe that made the song next to perfection.
I wish he would have sung running out of time, but that would be my only critique.
Lil' Yatchy's music style gets put in the category of Playboy Carti, Lil' Uzi, Travis Scott, etc., with how chaotic and party-like it is, but I hope he continues to tap into the jazz/funk style more because this album was a 10/10.
This is my favorite live performance so far this year, and this will not be the last time I see Yachty in concert.