Tyler, the Creator’s “IGOR” tour found its way to Portland’s Memorial Coliseum on Monday the 14th accompanied by openers Goldlink and Blood Orange. The concert brought a live performance of a majority of the songs off of the new record, and also called back to his previous work.
As the lights dimmed and the performance began, a bright circular spotlight shined on the regal drapery used as a backdrop. Wearing the now-iconic blonde bowl-cut wig — fit for his alter-ego Igor — appropriately paired with a Granny Smith green suit, Tyler, the Creator walked to center stage.
The familiar, distorted synth of “Igor’s Theme” began to play. He stood with his head down, facing the ground, only ad-libbing every once in awhile — the crowd took control of singing the lyrics. Tyler soaked up the crowd’s energy in this first song before he relayed it back to the crowd the rest of the night.
“IGOR” shows Tyler post-break up, vulnerable and emotionally restless. The album begins as a dissemination of infatuated feeling that exists in the early stages of relationships on songs like
“I THINK.” That infatuation fades as he loses his lover to another person. “A BOY IS A GUN*” and “PUPPET” reveal the loss of control over his own emotions due to this person leaving. He seems to find a bit of stability, or at least acceptance on the final tracks, like on “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE”.
Tyler, the Creator’s show took the listener through the landscape of “IGOR” by conveying the emotion of angst, pain and confusion on stage. It was if as if he was reliving the moments he describes on the record.
The emotion of “IGOR” transferred seamlessly onto stage. Tyler was no longer performing as himself, but instead as the character he created, Igor. While performing “EARFQUAKE,” he sang the chorus, “You make my earthquake” while throwing his body uncontrollably. His movements were symbolic of the lack of control he had when falling in love with the person he writes about on IGOR.
In the first half of the show, Tyler performed a majority of the tracks off of “IGOR,” yet not in the order they were presented on the album. Tyler is known for performing unreleased, original recordings of his songs, as he did for many of the tracks at this show. The song “GONE, GONE” was not sung over for its normal, playful melody; instead, Tyler sang the lyrics with a slow bravado over a smooth drum loop.
After he spent time giving the crowd a taste of his newest endeavors, he returned to some of his classics. A fan in the crowd held a sign that read, “Play Yonkers,” the hard-hitting, grotesque single that pushed Tyler into the spotlight overnight. Tyler looked at the sign and said, “That sign is fucking stupid, put that shit away.” He continued to tell the fan how audacious it was for her to suggest such an old song at that point. Then the cutthroat, boom-bap drum loop of “Yonkers” rattled through the stadium.
He took the time for the latter half of the concert to go through hit songs off of the entirety of the discography, bridging the gap between fans both old and new.
The Igor tour brought a concert unlike any of his before. While it welcomed the classics that returning fans have seen performed before, it brought a side of Tyler that may only exist for this season of his life, during this tour. It was a proclamation of the journey that existed within his newest record.
