Denzel Curry put on an insane, hip-hop lover’s dream of a concert on a Saturday night at the Palace in downtown St. Paul for his Melt My Eyez Tour. The three hour concert featured so many floor-shaking mosh pits and so much yelling and screaming that I started to feel a slight chest pain near the end of the show, but I can say with certainty that it was 100% worth it. Whether you’re someone that’s been listening to Curry since his early mixtape days of “N64” and “Imperial”, or don’t know much about him besides the fact that he was the guy who performs the song “Ultimate” that was in every water bottle Vine challenge back in 2016, you could have gone to this show and still had an amazing time. And I made a core memory after the show that will last for a lifetime... but more on that later.

After Playthatboizay, Redveil, and AG Club each took turns getting the crowd excited for the show with various bangers and inducing mosh pits of their own, Denzel Curry became the man of the hour shortly before 9 PM. He rolled out on stage with his DJ behind him and a futuristic Western-themed backdrop to the yelling of the thousands in the venue and started the set off with “Melt Session 1”, the intro off his newest album, “Melt My Eyez See Your Future”. The album is Curry’s most mature body of work yet, as he talks about his fear of death, his mental health and other human feelings, among other issues. But when he performed, it never felt as if it was too much of a bummer or too heavy to handle due to the energy and clarity in which he performed. You really could understand and feel every word he said as he interacted with the crowd in various ways through high-fives, shouting out people with high energy, and more.

Following that, he went into some more songs off the new album, starting with “Walkin’”. The lead single to the album features a phenomenal beat switch that saw Curry induce the first of many mosh pits for his set. He then followed those songs with some more low-key songs like “Worst Comes To Worst”, “The Last”, “Mental”, and “Troubles” to give the crowd a break before the absolute rage fest continued. “Troubles” in particular was a really fun performance, as the song has a singable T-Pain hook and while Pain wasn’t there to perform it, Denzel had the pipes to fill in for him as the testosterone-filled crowd of rowdy ragers, some of which were cleary high and/or drunk, were more than happy to sing their hearts out with him.

After he got some chill songs out of the way, it was time for Curry to rage once again. He went into “Ain’t No Way”, as the build up and cutting back of the lights had everyone waiting and building up suspense before the crowd erupted on the epic beat drop. He followed it up with “This Life” off of his 2016 release “Imperial”, which he called his favorite song on the album, as the whole floor went crazy and started packing each other like sardines.

One thing about this concert that excelled was the pacing and the setlist. There was lots of energy, but it was never too much, as there was always a little break in which Denzel would play

a couple slower songs and give the crowd a little time to reset and just sing and rap with him after moshing. And he played pretty much all of his most known songs, while also playing some deeper cuts, so there was something for everyone to enjoy. A highlight was when he teased the “Ultimate” instrumental a couple of times, before finally telling everyone to get low as the instrumental started and then just exploding when the drop on the song hit. Hearing everyone start yelling “I AM THE ONE, DON’T WEIGH A TON, DON’T NEED A GUN TO GET RESPECT UP ON THE STREET” at the top of their lungs was a core experience and a sign that Curry had made it big time. He even brought back the openers on stage for that one, and cut the beat for the second verse, still not losing his flow despite a lack of an instrumental. I also commend Curry for his breath control, as despite having a pretty hectic and fast flow, he’s still able to articulate clearly and his breathing wasn’t even very noticeable.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this concert was the way that Denzel used the background. There were animated visuals for the songs playing on a projector, some of which actually made references to the songs. For the high-energy “Sumo”, there was a video of sumo wrestlers, which was a nice touch. And when he performed “X-Wing”, there was a visual of an X-wing fighter from the Star Wars movies that inspired the name of the song. And although there was one part of the concert where a fan threw their phone on stage during “Black Balloons”, which caused Denzel to call them a “Justin Bieber looking motherf—-er” and restarted the song while threatening to walk off if someone did it again, thankfully the show went on and was not ruined by an inconsiderate fan.

After nearly an hour of sci-fi themed visuals, intense crowd activity, and charismatic performances, it appeared the show had ended with “The Ills”. But the crowd eagerly chanted “Denzel!” and “One more song!” before Curry came back out to end off with another rager, the fan favorite “ULT”. He thanked the crowd for the love before walking away and leading the parched crowd to look for water like that one SpongeBob episode where SpongeBob gets stuck in Sandy’s tree dome.

Once the show ended, as I was waiting for my roommate to pick me up, I found the tour bus and just waited there as I drank my bottled water. All of a sudden, Curry just snuck out of nowhere and had some time to talk to the loyal fans that had stuck around, myself included. I got to dap him up and tell him how appreciative I was to see him live, before I asked to take a picture and he accepted. I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and you wouldn’t have guessed this is a guy who makes some of the hardest rap music of the modern era by the way he was in person. Maybe he was just tired after the show, but he genuinely seemed thankful and appreciative and didn’t blow anyone off; he even signed some signatures.

All in all, it was such a high-energy experience that really can’t be replicated anywhere else, and that’s one of the main things I love about live music. Seeing everyone having high-octane fun

and making core memories over a shared interest of music is truly remarkable. And being able to see him live for the first time, while also getting to see the human side of him, was an unforgettable experience. Whenever Curry comes here next, I am without a doubt getting a pre-sale ticket and clearing my schedule for that day. I guess you could say I can already “see my future”.

By: Rogan Isbell