Trash, smoke and rhymes were abundant in the air outside of Alumni Arena as the kid from Cleveland put on one of the best live shows that has come to UB in years.
Kid Cudi, born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, helped the SA get students excited for the upcoming football season at Tuesday night's Backyard Bash. If the people that were in attendance weren't amped for the football season before the show, they are now.
Before Kid Cudi could take the stage, UB athletes paraded across the stage in an effort to increase attendance at sporting events. This came to no avail as the underage and rowdy crowd started to boo the cheerleaders who were emceeing the event.
Backyard Bash may have been intended to be a pep rally that got students stoked about the upcoming season, but a decent amount of the audience seemed to be drunk high school kids who just came to see Cudi. Tensions are bound to boil over when an intoxicated crowd gets jammed into a small area for an extended period of time. Unfortunately for SA, the crowd found the garbage can.
Even as the senior football players took the stage with head coach Jeff Quinn, the crowd became restless and started hurling bottles among the crowd to entertain themselves. The storm of trash ended after the staff members pleaded with the crowd to stop throwing bottles so Kid Cudi could take stage.
Despite an extended delay, the crowd still buzzed with anticipation for Cudi. When he finally appeared, the audience learned it was worth the wait.
Kid Cudi's set started with high intensity and it only escalated from there. From the beginning, the rapper made sure to mix in the old material with the new stuff. He started off with a new jam, "Revofev," before moving into fan favorite, "Soundtrack 2 My Life."
Cudi's passion for music was evident as soon as he took the stage. Not being content with just serenading the crowd with his songs, Kid Cudi ran and danced across stage throughout his entire performance.
The crowd fed off the energy that Kid Cudi radiated while performing his songs. In turn, Cudi fed off the hyped up crowd to create an event that will be remembered by UB students for a long time.
"Even though he played fewer songs, his performance was more intense than his set at Bonnaroo this year," said Mac Dailey, a junior business administration major. "I can't wait to see if SA can bring another act that can rival that in years to come."
The concert was not only a memorable experience for the crowd. While on stage, Kid Cudi announced that his performance at UB was one of the best of his career.
Cudi showed off his very large and diverse fan base at Backyard Bash as thousands of people flooded to the free event. For one evening, UB was turned into the stage at Lollapalooza.
During the "Mucho Mixtape," Kid Cudi performed three songs at a rapid pace to get the crowd into the party mood. The crowd started to move as much as they could, given the tight fit.
While Kid Cudi caught his breath from exhausting so much on stage, he gave a special freestyle that only the die-hard fans would know. The small portion of people who knew the song were delighted when the beat to "All Talk" dropped and Cudi unleashed his quick tongue.
Before he left the stage, Cudi performed his classic, "Pursuit of Happiness." The crowd took full advantage of the final chance to move and sing. As the beat carried on, the crowd sang back every word to the song in perfect timing with Kid Cudi.
Even though many people enjoyed Kid Cudi's set, there were some people, as always, that left disappointed.
"After an hour and a half of listening to various people lie about Kid Cudi coming right up, I got excited as Kid Cudi came to the stage. However, I soon found myself underwhelmed, as his stage performance is very lackluster," said Jeff Pollinger, a junior industrial and systems engineering major.
The SA may not have the best track record when it comes to bringing acts the masses want to see, but Kid Cudi may have restored some of the lost faith.
E-mail: arts@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Mhdariby / Wikimedia Commons
