It feels like my past several Pillbox [The Tartan's arts and culture section] articles have been concert reviews. In these past few weeks, I’ve been to more concerts than I have been in my entire life combined, but I’m not complaining! Last Thursday, Oct. 17, Hoodie Allen performed at Foxtail as part of his Whatever USA tour. After being a longtime fan, and being unable to go to his two previous shows, I finally got to see him. I guess third time really is a charm!
I’m not new to smaller venues, but this bar set was a first. The bar was absolutely packed with other fangirls chanting along to every word to every song, as well as to Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” during the intermission. It might seem a bit “basic,” but what fun is life if you don’t let yourself enjoy things?
Rapper Jake Miller opened. Sometimes opening acts don’t get the hype that they deserve, but that was not the case with Jake’s performance. I’m personally not too familiar with his music and arrived halfway through his set, but I could still feel the high momentum and energy that matched that during Hoodie’s performance.
Hoodie kicked off the show with the title track of his latest release, Whatever USA. I was partially expecting his tour to focus on his newer tracks, but he had a nice mix of older and newer tracks. He went back to Crew Cuts with OG favorites like “Two Lips” and “Cake Boy,” letting me live my best junior high life (back in the day when I listened to those on my iPod). Tracks from People Keep Talking and Happy Camper threw me back and made me almost believe that my high school years were my glory years (thankfully, they were not). The Hype, and now Whatever USA, captured the brighter parts of my college experience.
Should I have outgrown boyish music idols by now? Maybe. Perhaps one day I will. But for now, I enjoyed the performance. In the words of Hoodie himself, “I wanna stay young; don’t wanna fit in, I wanna have fun; so if that’s okay, I don’t think I’m ever gonna act my age.”
Comments