Drizzy Drake - Club Paradise Tour - Birmingham 19th & 20th April
Welcome to Club Paradise...
It finally arrived... After months of hearing about other parts of the world having the Club Paradise experience it was finally my turn and I was lucky enough to be seeing it twice! Well not lucky just extra dedicated - anyway this is how it went down...
First off he was supported by Labrinth who tore it up note perfect as well as playing guitar riffs and working his magic to get the crowd hyped. On the second night the audience were not as receptive for some reason but the first night everyone felt the vibe.
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| Lab supporting Drake 19.04.12 |
Drake's official tour DJ Future The Prince also did a set on the 20th; busting out jam after jam. Every artist should always allow their DJ to do a set as a warm up, I've said it about every show I have ever been to! He didn't do a set the night before, which I can say in retrospect we would have loved! Remember that for next time guys!
The arena began to fill out almost immediately - even those in seated had arrived early! By 8pm there wasn't an empty space in sight. Having seen Drake right from his first time here supporting Jay-Z on tour back in 2010 I was shocked myself at how fast he has gone to filling the same arena 2 days in a row, for 30,000 fans.
After the time consuming set up of the stage everyone was getting more and more tense - gaps started closing up in the crowd, toilet breaks had stopped and anyone that was trying to get past and "meet their friends" were getting told a point blank NO.
And then he arrived.
Bursting on with Lord Knows and the crowd going absolutely mental, he literally bounced across the stage, flowing straight after into one of my favourites from the Takecare album Underground Kings. (Sorry for the slight lack of control filming this one, the atmosphere was insane I couldn't help but get involved).
He continued to hit out track after track without giving you time to recover from the last one, keeping the energy at a constant optimum the whole time. It also brought attention to how many hits he has made in such a short period; the realisation seemed to hit the crowd every time we heard the opening bars of the next tune!
Something I felt that was particularly special was his mention of what it meant for him to play in Birmingham - as I mentioned earlier the first time I had seen Drake live was when he supported Jay-Z 2 years ago, which he humbly remembers and repeatedly thanked the audience on both nights, for being one of the first places in the UK to show him love. (And last year on his Thank Me Later tour he was performing at small venues only, but sold out his first arena ever which was in Birmingham too. Just saying.)
The show continued with an explosive performance of Takecare of which I captured some great footage that you can catch in the video below. His hyper energy catches him off balance at one point and he falls on stage but completely styles it out into a backward roll; so much so it almost looked like part of his routine - smooth move Drizzy!
He also took liberty at shouting out members of the audience which he spent a lot of time on - almost ten minutes - individually picking out people in the crowd and free-styling some into a rap and the hook from Make It Sound Sweet. Once everyone was buzzing off getting their shout out (or in some cases lifting their tops up in desperate last attempts of getting noticed for a shout out) he went on to play the last 3 bangers: Motto, HYFR and ending with Headlines. The atmosphere was euphoric by this point; the band were going crazy, audience were going crazy, he was going crazy - it was like an infectious buzz where everyone was high off his energy and then after saying his goodbyes he ended with the line "Until next time...TAKECARE!!"
He continued to hit out track after track without giving you time to recover from the last one, keeping the energy at a constant optimum the whole time. It also brought attention to how many hits he has made in such a short period; the realisation seemed to hit the crowd every time we heard the opening bars of the next tune!
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| Drake spotting me in the crowd...ahem |
The show continued with an explosive performance of Takecare of which I captured some great footage that you can catch in the video below. His hyper energy catches him off balance at one point and he falls on stage but completely styles it out into a backward roll; so much so it almost looked like part of his routine - smooth move Drizzy!
He also took liberty at shouting out members of the audience which he spent a lot of time on - almost ten minutes - individually picking out people in the crowd and free-styling some into a rap and the hook from Make It Sound Sweet. Once everyone was buzzing off getting their shout out (or in some cases lifting their tops up in desperate last attempts of getting noticed for a shout out) he went on to play the last 3 bangers: Motto, HYFR and ending with Headlines. The atmosphere was euphoric by this point; the band were going crazy, audience were going crazy, he was going crazy - it was like an infectious buzz where everyone was high off his energy and then after saying his goodbyes he ended with the line "Until next time...TAKECARE!!"
He is in the UK for the rest of this week to finish the European leg of the tour before taking Club Paradise back to the States. So there you have it! It's been great having you Mr Graham, enjoy the rest of the UK and come back soon!
(Ok one last treat... Marvin's Room below)
