I’ve been to many shows in this great city. I’ve seen small stars before they turned into superstars, and some legends that have already been established in the game. We really are the greatest city in this country because of the amount of acts that stop by and show love to our music loving community, and I surely do not take that for granted. A lot of cities are not blessed with the opportunity, and where so many people come from far and wide, I can just get on a train and/or bus and make my way down. My least favourite shows are All Ages shows because these prepubescent children (or high school students) don’t know how to act. They pre-drink, they can’t handle their liquor, they’re higher than a mother, and all of that just elevates into some wild shit once the doors open and the crowd rolls in. And the thing is, this behaviour from the kids is from almost every All-Ages crowd no matter what the size of the venue is. In the case of Future making his what seems to be 10^th appearance in Toronto in 2015 (no, seriously he was always here), the popularity of Dirty Sprite 2 combined with What A Time To Be Alive proved that he’s one of the hottest artists in the game, not just Hip Hop. At this point last year, I wouldn’t have thought that I would be paying for a $75 ticket to see him at my most hated venue in the city – Sound Academy. But because I wrote my piece on becoming a Future fan, I might as well have went for it, because why not? I finally enjoyed his music.

One of my favourite words in Toronto slang is ‘kawall.’ It generally means to swindle your way into a situation (for Americans, I would say ‘finessing’ is the equivalent). There’s always a long ass line up at Sound Academy and the best way to kawall it is to walk ahead and really see if there are people you know. Me & my boy Brendan were about that motive and successfully kawalled the line, because there’s no way that I’m standing in a long as line in the back in the cold. Absolutely not. Getting there via Uber (a funny Uber driver at that – reminded me of my hippy college professor), this was likely going to be the last show of 2015 that I would attend. Between all the music that dropped in 2015, it’s as though everyone was here for a concert and really I couldn’t keep up – or at least I tried my best. 2016 is going to be a problem (GoldLink, Pusha T, Rihanna, Bryson Tiller & Adele already confirmed not to mention our own talented people). I had the songs in mind that I already wanted to hear and that was what I was looking forward to.

There was a lot of waiting, and I didn’t know ahead of time that there weren’t going to be any openers, but at the same time, who can really open for Future that’s available? You’re not going to be just anyone on that bill. So after the long wait for Future that both tested my annoyance & patience of the bunch of people trying to push ahead of me (mind you, we were at the very front left-hand-side of the stage), it was finally time to witness the man of the hour in person compared to vines, and his live set at this year’s Made In America (which I should have been at). Between Monster, 56 Nights, Beast Mode, Honest, WATTBA, and DS2, there were many tracks that he could have ran through and the set should have ran between an hour and an hour and a half. Unfortunately it went by faster than I would have wanted, but at least I heard the songs that I wanted to. The highlight for me was hearing March Madness. It was the song that essentially converted me into a fan of his, and recording the madness around the Sound Academy, it was something special. Lay Up, Fuck Up Some Commas, Where Ya At, and Sh!t were also notable songs that got the crowd hype. I was surprised that Codeine Crazy wasn’t performed amongst other things, but between the crowd being irritating and the show, I found it difficult to really enjoy it as much as I wanted to if it was with an older crowd. So yes, I am blaming the children.

I like being in the crowd, I do, but when it comes to these kids, no thank you. Hip Hop shows have become the equivalent of indie rock shows because of the unnecessary moshing. You can turn up within your own space without being a dickhead. And you don’t have to try and push & stiff-arm everyone in your way to get a better view on Snapchat for your friends. I didn’t even want this to become a piece on how much I hate All-Ages shows, but really it’s these things that make people not want to go to certain shows because of the behaviour that will ensue. It’s either people 21+ don’t go to the shows or they’ll just gladly stand in the back to avoid being trampled or coming out with battle bruises for pushing idiots out of the way. It makes no sense. Regardless of all that transpired at the show, I’m glad I got seeing Future out of the way to add to my checklist of artists I’ve seen that put on great shows. Until next year,

That’s My Word & It STiXX