Curren$y With DJ Fat Tony Trees, Dallas Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Last night red and blue lights lit the hazy stage at Trees, and the smell of incense was in the air with the attempt to cover the smell of marijuana. The Dallas crowd was rebellious last night, people of all ages where getting kicked out of the venue, or maybe the staff was being too hard on the crowd who just wanted to have some fun and enjoy Curren$y's first show from "The Drive In Theatre Tour," promoting his recent mixtape.
Not that you can blame the folks who came to see the show. Curren$y's music is the type of hip-hop fans would listen to while smoking marijuana. Most of his music sounds relaxing and it's not very dancey. Unfortunately, for the fans last night the venue didn't approve of that action. Before Curren$y came out the crowd was small and it was fairly easy for the security to catch and kick out the offenders. Even during the New Orleans rapper's performance security was still taking anyone who wouldn't follow the rules out of the venue.
"This is a disaster," Curren$y declared before saving one of his fans from getting kicked out. "Trees staff, that's my cousin." Who knows how the staff will control fans from smoking marijuana when rapper Juicy J comes to Trees this September. Last time he performed at Southside Music Hall the venue was covered in smoke and the smell of the drug lingered heavily in the air.
Even without the ejections, before Curren$y came on stage some of the anxious fans became restless. At first they seemed to enjoy the opening rappers and sounds from DJ Fat Tony, but after that many had enough of it. A girl next to me seemed frustrated and after waiting for so long she decided to sit down on the floor. Some tried to be patient and try to enjoy the music by dancing to it, but the DJ wasn't able to successfully set the mood. I can't blame the fans, some of them had been there since 8 p.m. and Curren$y didn't come out to perform until 11:45 p.m. giving about an hour performance.
When he finally came out fans threw up his famous "Jet Life" hand sign that requires extending the pinky finger and thumb outward while folding the remaining three fingers into the palm of the hand. I guess it's supposed to be a jet. A memorable part of the show was when the crowd put their lighters in the air and swayed them from side to side, instead of using their phones. Yet again, of course the pot loving fans would have lighters in hand.
Curren$y promised Dallas a "motion picture experience," but it wasn't really delivered. There were no projections of pictures or videos but there was a certain motion in him when he was rapping. It was more like an engaging hip-hop experience. When Curren$y opened his mouth to rap his body moved to his flow in a harmonized manner. Everything blended perfectly, his words and body movements to the rhythm of the music took over him rather than him just jumping about the stage.
A cappella style raps throughout the show made them sound soulful and feel genuine, especially at the end of his set with "Breakfast" from his album Pilot Talk. Curren$y has a handful of loyal Dallas fans who knew the lyrics to most of his songs and was surprised that the crowd seemed to know lyrics to some of his older songs. He would rap a part and then the crowd would finish it off and they would go back and forth.
After he finished his set some fans squeezed their way to the front of the stage holding up one of their shoes, while others held caps or T-shirts for Curren$y to sign. Most of the fans got their items signed by the rapper, and for the ones who didn't, well at least you got to experience an intimate first show from the rapper's new tour.
