Travis Scott01.06.24
Toronto, ON
As controversial as his live performances may be, Travis Scott still brings an audacious energy to live performances that make his shows memorable, to say the least. I saw him (and Sheck Wes) previously on his tour for Astroworld in Montreal, during the height of the "Sicko Mode" or "Mo Bamba" craze. Needless to say, it was exactly what my then hyper-online and barely removed from teen-aged self was looking for. Now that was four years ago, and while Utopia was not an immediate hit for me like Astroworld was, I still enjoyed the album and had his upcoming tour on my radar.
I missed out on any of the presales, and prices were sky high, particularly for Toronto. But after one of the Toronto dates got postponed, prices dropped to a level I would consider reasonable. Not to mention, he added a show at Montreal's Bell Centre, which would have been a cool throwback to my first time seeing him, but I locked in on the Toronto show. Worked better with my vacation/work schedule, and it's always fun for me to spend a night in the big smoke.
So, first note for the show – no classic opener, instead a DJ set from Chase B. The production value for the "Astroworld" tour was insane; this was no exception. Here, he was perched upon various rock formations, surrounded by floating Moai-esque statues, one of which even scooped up some fans for a ride at one point during the show.
Given that we were in Toronto, one might expect a surprise appearance from one of Travis' many industry connections, like Drake or The Weeknd. Alas, neither of them appeared, but Travis' setlist was stacked enough as it is. And he's at a point in his career where he's not going to have time to play everything people might want to hear. Some of his psychedelic stuff was absent here, like "Drugs You Should Try It" or "Astrothunder" – but I might be dating myself there, as this was one of the first times in my life where I felt young in any kind of situation; it felt like I was surrounded by people that were probably a spitting image of myself at the Astroworld tour. And as I mentioned earlier, that was four years ago.
We can't not mention "FE!N" here. I believe he's made it a tradition at these shows to play that song as many times as the crowd will allow him. According to setlist.fm, he played it six (!) times here.
Other setlist highlights were an excerpt of what I believe is an unreleased Playboi Carti song, classics like "Nightcrawler" and "90210", and of course my favourites from Utopia like "MY EYES" and "TELEKINESIS".
Travis – I'll see you in another four years.
