LA-based rapper Earl Sweatshirt made a stop at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on Tuesday night as part of his ongoing “Fire It Up!” tour. Throughout the night, Sweatshirt kept a casual vibe, performing songs from his 2018 LP, “Some Rap Songs,” alongside a slew of deep cuts.
The opening act LIV.E made her way on stage around 9:20 p.m. with Sweatshirt himself making an early appearance as one of the DJs. Her music blended elements of hip-hop and jazz into a unique brand of leftfield funk.
Sporting a cowboy hat throughout most of her set, the Texas-based artist paid tongue-in-cheek tribute to her home state, lifting up a pink, toy gun and leading the crowd in an ironic “yeehaw.” For the most part, her music maintained a mostly laid back atmosphere — although, she did chip her tooth on the microphone at one point.
Between sets, Sweatshirt never left the stage and opted instead to dance around as his DJ hyped up the audience with some high-energy hip-hop tracks. His performance officially began around 10:00 p.m. with the RZA-produced “Molasses” off his debut studio album “Doris.” The crowd shouted along during the hook: “I’ll fuck the freckles off your face, bitch.”
Sweatshirt devoted most of his setlist to tracks from “Some Rap Songs” as well as his sophomore album “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside.” In the studio, Earl may be more than willing to dive into his misanthropic tendencies, with bleak lyrics and claustrophobic beats, but these same tracks found new life in their live performances.
On “Grief,” a crowd favorite, the otherwise abrasive beat filled the entire room with heavy bass frequencies. Other songs like “Azucar” and “The Mint” did not feel sad or awkward outside of their album context. In fact, Sweatshirt even appeared to be having fun with his music as he made banter with his DJ, with friends dancing alongside him on stage.
He joked around with the fans and goaded them into waving their hands back and forth at one point. The energy in the venue might have been more subdued as Sweatshirt’s recent music has ventured even further away from club bangers. The crowd, however, was anything but disinterested. Some loyal audience members even rapped along faithfully to every bar.
“Pre,” the bass-heavy “Doris” opener, came as a surprise towards the end of the set — and it may have been the closest thing Earl played to a hit. He left out the more obvious choices like “Chum” and “Burgundy.” He also avoided any hints toward his reckless and now mythified past with the defunct hip-hop collective Odd Future. But this setlist reflected a more mature Sweatshirt, continually growing in his musical sensibilities.
As his hour-long setlist came to a close, no encore was necessary. He finished off the night with the soulful “Shattered Dreams,” followed by the instrumental “Riot!” — a perfect setlist closer, during which Sweatshirt gave his thanks to the crowd.
Then the show fell into a sort of non-ending, with Sweatshirt dancing around again as his DJ played some random hip-hop singles.
Sweatshirt turned back to address the crowd at one point: “I ain’t be watching ‘Game of Thrones’ but I know some of you care about that so make some noise for that shit.” The DJ then mixed the final song into oblivion, “a crazy a little loop” as Sweatshirt said, slowing it down beyond recognition before everyone made their final exit from the stage.
The ending was non-traditional, but it somehow made sense for someone that had titled their most recent album “Some Rap Songs.” Sweatshirt wasn’t taking things too seriously, and he didn’t have to. He had already earned the respect and none of it was lost in Portland.
