EARL SWEATSHIRT at the Phoenix, Sunday, August 16. Rating: NNN
Murky, spare and cerebral, Earl Sweatshirt’s latest album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside doesn’t seem like a natural fit for a hyped-up hip-hop show, but that perceived disparity is clearly not shared by the L.A. rapper.
Sunday night’s gig was originally scheduled for April but got pushed back due to health issues, so Earl’s cultish fan base had to wait extra-long to catch his first proper headlining gig in the city. Two years after his hoodie-obscured opening set for Kendrick Lamar at Sound Academy, the rakish MC was much more showman-like but also more openly curmudgeonly, which created an off-kilter vibe that worked well with angsty songs like Grief, Faucet and Mantra.
Backed by a DJ and hype man Nakel Smith, Earl had a sleepy, unassuming presence that contrasted with the clarity and cleverness of his rhymes. He set that tone early on, strolling out 15 minutes late while the DJ was still playing. For much of the show, the crowd seemed unsure of when and how to go nuts, but a bit of snarky chiding by Earl set off a round of pogoing and call-and-responses to Grown Ups and DNA.
“Goddamn, I’m about to pass out in this bitch,” he remarked at one point to no one in particular.
When a crowd-surfer rushed the stage, he interrupted the song to bark at him to get off. Other times, he played up his fickleness and the audience ate it up. He dressed down a fan who wanted to touch him, and he eyed a projectile bra that landed onstage with a look of disgust while barely suppressing a smile.
He also played two new songs, including a crowd-pleaser with a hissing, trappy beat. After ending with Quest/Power, he returned and delivered the “bad news” that he wasn’t going to play any more songs and the “good news” that he was going to DJ instead. The venue turned off all but the onstage monitors and brought up the house lights to reveal that only the most devoted and/or messiest fans remained. (Security had been escorting out a steady stream of seriously fucked-up-looking people throughout the show.)
And so the set ended on the weirdly unassuming vibe on which it began.
kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @kevinritchie