Rapper Mac Miller promised an epic adventure at the Bomb Factory on Wednesday night and brought his GO:OD AM Tour to Deep Ellum intent on living up to the hype.
The Pittsburgh native laid out two simple ground rules for the night's proceedings, both call and response. Whenever he yells, "one band," fans yell back, "one sound," in the spirit of the 2002 movie, Drumline. The other, he yells. "I've changed," to which the crowd is to scream back, "a lot!"
They were apropos requests for an artist who's racked up double-digit mix tapes and three studio albums despite being just a month shy of his 24th birthday. There was a lot of ground to cover.
Sporting a black satin jacket and simple gold rope, the rapper offered a cross-section of his catalog beginning with "Loud" from his 2012 mixtape Macadelic and "Watching Movies" from his 2013 album Watching Movies With the Sound Off. I was excited to hear favorites such as "Insomniac" from his 2014 mixtape, Faces, and even see him reaching back to do records like "Nikes on My Feet" from 2010's K.I.D.S. and "Donald Trump" from 2010's Best Day Ever. The latter earned legitimate screams of "classic" from college-aged fans who've grown up with Miller's music.
In large part, fans fit a very specific brand of "backwards -hat hipster" (Mavs or Stars or vintage Dallas jersey absolutely required) that beautifully cut across racial lines.
On stage, Miller proved to be a seasoned performer. Even when grabbing fans' phones to snap selfies or their beer bottles to take swigs, he never missed a bar of the kinds of songs that proved challenging for those attempting to rap along. The crowd seemed happy just to accent punchlines for verses they couldn't keep up with, while Miller rapped so passionately that his khaki hat frequently flew off behind him.
Mac Miller has changed of lot, and the GO:OD AM segment of his show was a great shift in pace. The only time he lost folks was when he slowed the set down for love.
"Objects In The Mirror" from 2013's Watching Movies With The Sound Off and "ROS" from GO:OD AM elicited giddy bounces and a rush to open Snapchat from the women around me, but most dudes took those moments as chances to see how many Snaps from earlier in the show failed to post.
Dropping "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's theme music and double-fisting beers, ironically, made for a nice nod to Texas as he returned for the encore, but Miller wasn't the only one to take advantage of the sellout crowd.
Opener Tory Lanez crowd surfed from the stage to the balcony to end his early set, swiping something to smoke along the way and sparking it up once he summited with fans in the upper VIP area. Moments like that tend to get burned in one's brain.
For Miller, though, moving beyond teen sensation, beyond past addiction and depression seems like a layup. His lyrical ability and everyman sensibility are undeniable.
