On the cold evening of December 12, Rod Wave’s sold out Nostalgia Tour landed in New Orleans. Taking place at the Smoothie King Center, this date is toward the end of the tour’s two month run.
Fans filled up the arena’s floor as the GA pit saw a sea of people crowding very tightly together to get the closest view of the show, while the assigned seated sections weren’t nearly as occupied yet. They rapped along to the DJ’s set playing a mix of City Girls and Sexyy Red.
EElmatic opens the show wearing light denim, a tan jacket and turquoise fitted cap. He plays piano while he performs and tells the crowd that he used to play for Rod Wave. He plays a couple songs before mentioning he has a special gift for a lady in the crowd and proceeds to come down from the stage to deliver a rose to a girl in the pit.
The next performers weren’t listed on the show’s set list and a few people seemed a bit confused. An artist, Dee Spades, performed wearing a red two piece tracksuit. He came to the edge of the stage and motioned for security to grab a girl’s phone so that he could take a selfie video then he tossed it back to her - she didn’t seem to be too impressed. He did a couple more songs before walking off stage.
The DJ was back to playing between sets, and received a huge “SKEE YEE” in response to his “If you see me and you tryna see what’s up” call before playing more Sexyy Red. Johnny Goin 2x introduced himself as Toosii’s official DJ before the “Favorite Song” rapper entered the stage wearing a hoodie, jeans, trucker hat and plenty of jewelry.
Toosii said tonight he’s in one his favorite places [New Orleans] where there’s some of the prettiest girls. He performed some of his well known songs from the stage before coming down to get in the crowd.
“I know y’all paid good money to be here,” he said. “So I like to come out and touch the people.” He performed “Another Love Song” while standing in the audience flanked by security. He returned to stage to continue his performance and removed his hoodie to reveal a beta shirt. He proceeded to toss the beta to someone in the crowd before performing his closing song. As soon as the beat dropped to “Favorite Song,” everyone screamed as if it was… their favorite song. The crowd lit up the arena with their phone lights and sang the words louder than him.
R&B songstress Ari Lennox was next up. She has been said by many to be an odd choice for this tour’s lineup. I’m personally a huge fan of Ari and welcome any chance to see her perform. However, I was disappoint to see the reception she received from this crowd.
She performed songs from both her Shea Butter Baby and ASL albums. She sang through songs including BMO, New Apartment and Backseat. By the time she reached the end of her set and closed with her biggest hit “Pressure,” the crowd had jumped to feet with their phones ready to record this song that they no doubt recognized from her.
After Ari, the stage was being set for the headliner. ROD WAVE! ROD WAVE! chants erupted from the crowd, and all of the previously unoccupied arena seats were now filled reflecting the show’s sold out status. By 10:18, the crowd seemed to be getting restless as the DJ played the same Sexyy Red song for the fourth time of the night. But two minutes later, their demeanor changed as Rod Wave entered the stage performing “Call Your Friends.”
He performed many songs from his Nostalgia album and the tour’s namesake as the crowd screamed along and felt every lyric as if they wrote it. Rod said that this is like therapy for him. He wore his own face on his hoodie - one of the tour merch items, jeans and a low cut that differs from the mane of hair he wears on the album cover.
The crowd remains fully engaged throughout his performance. At one point during the song “Come See Me,” in which he sings “last night I was so high, almost jumped out the window,” he climbs up onto a balcony that has been built on the stage and freefalls backward off of it. He performs more songs including Turks & Caicos, Crazy and Boyz Don’t Cry before closing with “Great Gatsby.”
Rod Wave is currently on the Nostalgia Tour through December 18 where it ends in Jacksonville.
Comments