u/Disciple522

Listen to the god awful isolated vocals from John's "hit" "song" from the 90's. Total garbage. Featuring shoehorned in extra syllables, awful lyrics, and annoying timbre. You can tell the producers were working overtime to make these vocal takes sound somewhat acceptable.

I've been to so many great concerts in my life, spanning many genres of music. I've seen everybody from Black Sabbath to The Allman Brothers to KoRn to System of a Down to Wi Tang to Flobots and everything in between. I love live music with all my heart. I brought my newish girlfriend and it was her first real concert ever. We both had an amazing time. It was an outdoor show and a light rain had started while we waited for the show to begin. It was warm enough out that it wasn't too bad though. I had bought seats for us, figuring, with it being her first concert, sitting down in the back with a great view would be best as she deals with some social anxiety.

Chip the Ripper opened up with high energy and tight flows and a great setlist. I wasn't familiar with him before the show, but I'll definitely be adding some of his songs to my Spotify. During his first song, an employee of the venue approached us and offered us free lawn brackets for the pit, which we gladly accepted. I asked her if she'd like to go down there and said we could always come back up to the seats if it got to be too much, and she was excited to go check it out. We were able to get close to the stage, within ten people, and ended up around a, mostly, great group of people. Shout out to the left side of the middle for bringing the good vibes. Chip did a great job of getting the crowd primed for the rest of the night and brought an infectious good energy with him. Great choice for an opener and I'd honestly go see him live again if he played around here on his own.

By now, the rain had picked up quite a bit and was coming down enough that we were all wet. The crowd took it in stride and the weather didn't dampen the energy at all.

Me N U (sp?) were really good. Their set opened with one of my all time favorite songs, Everything In It's Right Place by Radiohead, so they instantly had my attention. They also brought a ton of positive high energy with them and built perfectly on top of Chip's hype. You could tell they had an honest and real love for music and enjoyed what they were doing, which made the crowd love it as well and want to be a part of the fun. Great mixes of songs. The beats made us want to move and dance and have fun. I'd go see them play again without hesitation.

It was full on pouring rain now. Everyone was soaked. Nobody cared.

Then Big Boi came in, and holy shit. There's a reason he is a legend. His hype video had the crowd going mad and when he hit the stage it exploded with high energy fun. He played a great mix of classics and his solo stuff. His flows were tight and he was having a ton of fun performing. It's too bad Andre lost his damn mind, because an actual Outkast tour would be lit. That said, Big Boi showed up in full force and his hype man and him had great playful energy with each other and the setup worked well. Some legends just show up for the check, BB showed up to bring the house down, and that's exactly what he did. The DJ was great and had some tight scratching moments that complemented the set well. At the end of his set, my girl said that even if that had been the whole show, she would have felt likebthebwhike night was worth it. The energy in the crowd was electric.

Cudi took a while to set up. The energy in the crowd stayed at a ten while we waited. The rain picked up a bit more during the break, but finally died off for most of his set.

Holy. Shit. God. Damn.

What an amazing setlist and performance by the Kid. There is a reason he is a legend. I can say, truly and honestly, quite possibly the best live set I've ever seen by any artist ever. I'm a fan, but not a diehard. I bought tickets because Pursuit of Happiness got me through some tough times in my life over the last few years, and it seemed like a great first concert for her to go to. I became more familiar with his catalog after I bought the tickets with some recommendations from this sub. I'm in love with PPaDS. That album is now in my top ten albums of all time, and I've talked about that in this sub before. That said, I don't rank his set as the best because it's Cudi and I got to see him live, I rank his set the best because it was the best and I'm now an even bigger fan for life.

He showed up hard and brought everything he had to the show. Being in Maine, sometimes it can be a mixed bag at concerts. Some artists seem to look at it as a night to take it easy and save the high energy for a bigger state. That was not Cudi, or, to be totally fair, anyone on the show last night. He might as well have been playing MSG. His vocals are on point. The music was mixed to perfection. Sound quality was crystal clear. He enjoyed interacting with the crowd and you could feel the love he has for performing. He made you feel like a part of the experience in a way I've never seen another performer achieve. He showed genuine gratitude for everyone being there. It was a great selection of songs and he played everything I wanted to hear and turned me on to some new songs I hadn't payed much attention to yet.

Then there are the visuals for the show. Just. Wow. I mean, the only thing comparable to the visual aspect of the show I've ever seen was Nine Inch Nails on the With Teeth tour, and that didn't even come close to touching Cudi's visuals. The use of the box and video aspect was mind blowing. It started off simple at the beginning of the set and evolved into a living, breathing, music video come to life. The use of the camera controlling the projections into a live feed on the giant screen behind the box was genius. The selection of visuals were on point and complemented the songs perfectly. At one point, there was a sunrise playing during one of the songs, with Cudi pouring his heart out into his vocals, and a deep, chest shaking, bass hum that all came together and absolutely floored me. I couldn't help but think, if I were just witnessing that sunrise in real life, by itself, I would be in awe. But, with all the elements combined together, it was like a religious experience. Truly emotional in an unexpected way.

He brought Chip back out for a couple songs, and an onstage smoke sesh, which really tied the whole show together in a great way. Then he closed with a final encore that was comparable with a fireworks finale where he gave us whatever energy he had left, and I'm not sure how he had any left to give at that point, and sent us all home with it.

Listening to people talking on the way, I was not alone in how I felt at all. I heard many people declaring it the best live show they'd ever seen and I didn't hear a single negative comment about any part of the show.

My girl loved it. We both had an amazing time. Shout out to the entire lineup for making it a truly magical night and great first concert experience for her. We've both had some very tough times over the last few years and life lately has had many trials in it and last night was exactly the medicine we needed. She is such an amazing partner and truly wonderful human being and you all worked so incredibly hard to create a gift I was able to share with her that she truly deserves and I will be forever grateful to you all for showing up and being there legends that you are. Thank you.

Anyone on the fence about grabbing tickets to any of the upcoming shows, just do it. Right now. Close reddit. Open Ticketmaster and buy the damn tickets. I promise you there is nothing else that you will do with your time the night of that show that will ever compare to the night you will spend with these incredible performers.