Image credit Sanchez Productions, via Wikimedia Commons
One dark and stormy Halloweekend night, I realized the time had come for me to apply for an AARP card. It was a Saturday night in November, and Don Toliver was performing at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH. I felt over the moon – as I admit, I am a massive Don Toliver fan and would likely be content if he stood up there with a karaoke machine and a cue card. But my roommate and fellow concert-goer, Cora, only knew his TikTok songs – so between the two of us we formed maybe a single objective viewer.
As we stepped inside the area, I immediately met with a thick smog of Breeze smoke floating down the escalator. Who needs Big Oil when you have the collective efforts of ten thousand sixteen year old boys? The average age, I thought, of a Don Toliver concert attendee: underage.
F**k, I thought, glancing at my poor roommate. While – like I said, I could enjoy a Don Toliver look-alike concert with just the backing track played – they were not so eager. I could practically read the thoughts scattered across their face; why the hell am I here on Halloween when I could be getting blackout in a mouse ‘costume’?! Quotes important.
I tactfully ignored their non-voiced opinions, ushering us to our seats. Thanks to a late class, I’d skipped the two previous openers – but chatting with random people near us, I gathered they were less than impressive.
Circa 8:30pm, Ski Mask the Slump God jumped on stage. I felt apprehensive. I know maybe a single song of his – but to my relief, it appeared to be a tribute concert. Out of the twelve songs he performed, half covered XXXTentacion (XXX) or Juice Wrld. Ski Mask and XXX had met in 2013, and quickly became best friends. Since the death of XXX, Ski Mask has yet to release another album. Ski Mask carried a surprising amount of stage presence, and I found myself pleasantly surprised by his ability to hold a crowd. That being said, the lack of awareness regarding his actual music led to a lack of enthusiasm in the crowd, with most people around me watching his performance from their seats. At least the pit appeared to be having a wonderful time.
The house lights went back up, and the sea of children in front of me reminded me that I might be getting too old for this. What really clued me in was the clusters of middle-aged parents sitting at the bar pounding back Modelos in some sort of effort to survive the next hour and a half of TikTok music.
I kid. Mostly.
I say this all in good faith – Don Toliver was my second most listened to artist last year (which says as much about me as it does him).
Forty-five minutes later, the lights went back down. I have to applaud Don Toliver for this quick transition. I’ve attended a multitude of previous rap performances that didn’t even begin until well past the noise curfew. In fact, I saw Don Toliver for the first time at one of these performances – back in my own freshman year, as an opener to Future – and when I tell you Future delivered the worst concert I’ve ever witnessed…
The show began with the guitar strums of his album opener to his newest project, Hardstone Psycho: ‘KRYPTONITE’. First, fire streaming from jets strategically illuminated a guitarist standing on the upper left Don Toliver’s elaborate stage set, imitation wrought-iron stairs going up to layered platforms stretching the length of the stage. After the guitarist (who was amazing by the way, seconded by my guitar-playing roommate), finished playing the opening cords, Don Toliver appeared and the crowd went insane. Psycho even.
Don Toliver continued the set by performing another three songs off his newest album; ‘TORE UP’, ‘BROTHER STONE’, and ‘4X4’. I sang my heart out and watched a boy do one too many backflips as his fellow high schools with flashlights worked to open the pit up. Don Toliver then moved into other crowd pleasers from his previous four albums; the COVID-throwbacks ‘Cardigan’ and ‘Had Enough’ and high school basement-throwbacks ‘GANG GANG’ and ‘WHAT TO DO?’—both JackBoys songs. I worry that for most of the crowd, those latter two resonated more as middle school basement throwbacks. And as I jumped up and down again, singing along to the next song, a Kanye single; ‘Field Trip’, I felt my bones creak and ache.
He continued with a flawless mix of songs off his newest album and crowd-pleasing highlights from his discography including; ‘Lemonade’, ‘Private Landing’, and ‘BACKSTREETS’, ‘Smoke’ and ‘No Idea’. The highlight of the festivities came about three-quarters of the way through for his first single off Hardstone Psycho ‘BANDIT’, in which two motorcyclists came out and drove through a spherical ball in the middle of state; like something out of Cirque Du Soleil. Don Toliver finished out the show by playing ‘TORE UP’ about seven or eight more times, the crowd going wild as impressive pyrotechnics went off and bright lights flashed across the crowd.
Don Toliver put on an amazing show, with spectacular special effects and quality stage presence. However as I left the arena, the crowd pressing on me from all directions, the thought still rung in my head: I am far too old for Don Toliver at Nationwide. That isn’t to say that you won’t catch me in the pit one day, watching out for everyone like a benevolent grandmother.
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