Tyler, The Creator staged a smoking hot concert at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum Thursday night — with firework showers, loud explosions, bursts of fireand a star who burned brighter than everything else.
But maybe there was just a little too much smoke.
Shortly after the rapper’s 90-minute set wrapped, fire alarms went off inside the Milwaukee Bucks arena. Security went into emergency mode, encouraging everyone to get out. (Unfortunately for some fans, the merch stands had to immediately shut down.)
Froma split-second peek inside the bowl before being ushered out, it looked like there was a lot of white smoke hovering around the stage — although clearly it didn't alarm the stagehands, who continued to tear down the set.
The Milwaukee Fire Departmentsent trucks to the arena quickly, but there was no fire, a Bucks spokeswoman confirmed in a statement.
"The alarm was set off by the abundance of residual smoke from the show’s pyrotechnic effects," she wrote.
No doubt Tyler had a hugelaugh when he heard about that.
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As his profile has gotten larger in recent years, his shows have become wildly elaborate. Last time he was in town in 2018, the Rave had to remove its second-story front window to geta giant tree for his set into the building, because itwastoo large to fit through the loading dock.
So for his biggest tour to date, he upped the ambitions, and not just with the pyro.
For opening number "Sir Baudelaire" — the first of several consecutive tunes from his latest and greatest album,"Call Me If You Get Lost" — he was lifted from under the stage standing in the back of a gorgeous, aqua-colored, 1939 Rolls Royce Wraith he claimed was once owned by the Rockefellers.
Then for second number "Corso," a video screen pulled back to reveal an elaborate, two-story facade of a mansion — with stairs, balconies, lighting displaysandvideo screens for windows— and the fireworks started flying, with Tyler still eclipsing the pyro's pops and crackles with his propulsive delivery.
Standing on a balcony, he stoically held out his hand, hushing the crowd with the icy power of a feared Roman emperor, before the boisterous horns of "Lemonhead" kicked in, leading to a crowd-leaping frenzy on the floor.
Three songs later, Tylergot a closer look — by stepping on a luxury speedboat that emerged from beneath the stage, and bobbed down an aisle between two sections of fans, landing at a second stage decorated like a grassy field.
The setup was striking, encapsulating the uplifting, top-of-the-world attitude that informs much of "Lost."
But seeing how Tyler has evolved to become one of rap's most imaginative and magnetic performers was the greatest feat of all.
The songs have become vastly richer and more creative. On that grassy B-stage, Tyler at mid-set thrilled fans by revisiting his older material — but it was the right call to reduce this to a blink-and-you-miss-it medley. These days, Tyler would never reducehimself to thecheapshock tactics ofunsettling stalker tale "She" from 2011's "Goblin."
Compare that, for instance, with the masterful "Massa," a setlist highlight Thursday from “Lost,"which finds chuckles from self-deprecation — with the babyface Tylerrapping about hitting puberty at 23— and inspires without being saccharine, like a quietly moving line about he knew he was successful when he could get his mom out of a shelter.And beyond that engrossing, growling and barking flow, Tyler performed the song moving in fits and starts like a robot, meticulously precise with every step, pause and gesture.
He lent that same dazzling physical skill to "Who Dat Boy," his feet sliding and gliding with the finesse of Michael Jackson or Dua Lipa's roller-skating dancers. And no one presents juxtapositions live better than Tyler. He sang a pretty five-word melody over and over for about two minutes that's buried in "New Magic Wand," before screaming and stomping through the song, ending with his collapse. And he hilariously looked bored to death standing atop his moving boat during "WUSYANAME," before suddenly succumbing to the song's R&B swag.
Even the slow-motion blinking he did during the frightful scorned lover rager "IFHY" was a statement. He's become masterful in that way, bringing purpose to even the slightest motion and phrase. Nearly everything he does in concert is intentional.
Except setting off an NBA arena's fire alarms, of course.
Kali Uchis wows with opening set
Ticket-holders got a lot of show for their money Thursday night with three opening acts, including rappers tee*zo Touchdown (so bizarrely endearing at Summerfest 2021) and Vince Staples (a recurring Tyler tour mate). But Kali Uchis’ debut Milwaukee performance — really, performance art — was really special.
The psychedelic R&B artist behind the unexpected smash hit “Telepatia,” (which like other Uchissongs, she sings in English and Spanish)is practically a unicorn among her peers, especially live, accompanied Thursday by four exceptional interpretive dancers, alien like in their cold demeanor and dystopian, red gauze bodysuits.
Watching everyone move at half-speed across the entire 40-minute set made Uchis’ dream-like music all the more engrossing, and the guillotine-sharpprecision of the choreography, like the dancers’ spasms to the jittery synth stabs of “Speed,” infinitely more intense.
The takeaways
- This was Tyler's first time at the Bucks arena, so naturally they got a shout-out, but with a funny twist. "You guys know these are the basketball champions, right?" he said to huge cheers. "It's the Bucks, right? I honestly just found that out.I don't follow basketball, but I'm happy for you guys, congrats."
- Tyler also dropped an impromptu verse about the team, which also referenced the nasty weather, during "See You Again": "Ah, I heard that there's a storm, I hope I don't get stuck/But I'm performing in the place, where I shoot with the Bucks."
- The arena's lower bowl was packed for Tyler Thursday, with thousands smashed together on the floor, but the upper bowl was curtained off. Even though the show didn't sell as many tickets as, say, Imagine Dragons did (playing the arena Friday night), I hope Fiserv Forumcontinues to book major hip-hop shows. Summerfest lands big rapperson its biggest stages every year, but the hip-hop arena tour history in Milwaukeeis still abysmal. Before Tyler, the last hip-hop arena show at Fiserv Forum was Travis Scott in 2019, and that ended a 16-year dry spell with no major rap tours in the city's biggest arena.
The setlist
1. "Sir Baudelaire"
2. "Corso"
3. "Lemonhead"
4. "Hot Wind Blows"
5. "Lumberjack"
6. "Massa"
7. "Wusyaname"
8. "Boredom"
9. "911/Mr. Lonely"
10. "See You Again"
11. "IFHY"
12. "She"
13. "Smuckers"
14. "Yonkers"
15. "Bimmer"
16. "Tamale"
17. "Sweet/I Thought You Wanted To Dance"
18. "Who Dat Boy"
19. "I Think"
20. "Earfquake"
21. "New Magic Wand"
22. "Runitup"
ContactPiet at (414) 223-5162 orplevy@journalsentinel.com. Followhim on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Piet also talks concerts, local music and more on "TAP'd In" with Evan Rytlewski. Hear it at 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9), or wherever you get your podcasts.
