“Look at Sharkcat’s eyes! Aren’t you scared?!” bellowed a member from Odd Future to the sold out crowd at the Warfield on Friday, Sept. 30.
To those of you unfamiliar with Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (an L.A. rap collective more commonly known as Odd Future), Sharkcat is the mascot of their cur- rent tour, and its feline face, cute but definitely not all together innocent, adorns a massive banner in front of which the crew raps to their audiences during their current tour.
In an impressively short time, the group has made a place for them- selves in the hip-hop scene. Already, they’ve performed on Jimmy Fallon and more recently, front man Tyler The Creator won the VMA award for Best New Artist. They’ve come a long way from the underground scene and have an equally impressive live show to accompany their radical success.
Most of the members in Odd Future are younger than 21, and much of their following is too. This was definitely more of a younger crowd, and because of this, the energy both on stage and off was forceful and stimulating.
Because they’re so young and gung-ho, the members jump into the crowd during the show, causing waves of the audience to slide left to right to catch them. Believe me, I know this can be irritating during concerts, but the energy of the show and in the music was so pervasive, that it was difficult to find much to complain about.
The general admission crowd was literally pulsing with force. I found myself in several spontaneously created mosh-pits throughout the show, but for any seasoned concert aficionado, this is not much to sweat. Speaking of sweat, man, was it sweaty in that crowd! This is understandable when taking the context of this group’s message into account.
With objectionable language and themes, it’s not surprising that their audience was loud and aggressive. But that’s the entire point! Some people don’t really know how to react to Odd Future and that’s exactly what the group wants. Some take them too seriously, berating them for being disrespectful and inappropriate, but it’s important to remember that these are just a bunch of kids. They’re a talented group of young people that produce all of their own music and have complete creative control over their material just having fun. Part of their appeal is that they’re kids just like us, who have grabbed their dreams and done something about it.
Everyone has dark thoughts and Odd Future has a business model centered around this. They use this to garner attention and have a dedicated fan-base that even brings them gifts to shows. One young lady in the crowd brought Tyler a gift bag with his favorite lotion.
There was definitely a sense of homogeny in the crowd, since the group’s popularity has understand- ably shot up due to their precocious artistic style. Odd Future are incredibly self-aware and know that provocative and ignorant lyrics will gather both good attention and bad. The crowd went crazy as OF played “French,” which encourages the audience to “check” rather than pardon their French. The set-list covered many favorites like Tyler’s “Yonkers”, Mike G’s “Everything That’s Yours”, and Mellowhype’s “64”. Domo Genesis played some new material and I have to admit, he brought the most to the stage. Even Earl Sweatshirt’s (a group member who is unfortunately absent) music was played over loud speakers.
I would highly recommend that people check these guys out because they’re doing something really fresh with music and as long as you can appreciate solid beats and clever word play, you shouldn’t get too wrapped up in the darker themes that normally turn people off. This is definitely a group worth keeping up with and personally, I look forward to following them through their inevitable future success.
