Schoolboy Q’s Auckland Gig Was a Rowdy But Raring Performance

With the audience heavily skewed to 'dude', a strong testosterone tension hung over Auckland's Logan Campbell Centre on Thursday night for Schoolboy Q's​ third visit to the city. Most were ID checked on entry, everyone got frisked and the more excited were escorted from the venue before the main event had even started.

Logan Campbell Centre at times has the feel of a high school hall but tonight it was close to packed with fans eager to see what the Los Angeles rapper had for the Auckland edition of his Blank Face LP tour.

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Starting with a medley of snippets from Blank Face and Oxymoron including "Fuck LA", Q was in casual form from the beginning. Sporting a hoodie and light-wash jeans - but not his signature bucket hat - he performed alone on stage with his DJ sectioned off on a high level booth at the back.

Though the sound was disappointing, with the vocal mix too loud and too heavy on the low end to give Schoolboy the space to snarl as he does on record, he performed admirably.

Rapping with intensity for a full hour is difficult (especially for someone who boasts such a tenacious cannabis habit as) and typical of many rap shows these days, Schoolboy didn't fill out every bar true to the original rather allowing the crowd do some of the work.

The set surprisingly leaned heavily on older material from both Oxymoron and Habits & Contradictions, including "Hands on the Wheel", "Studio", and "Collard Greens", the latter of which was handled deftly by Q, who took on Kendrick's verse, including the Spanish.
 
The bucket hat made an appearance halfway through the set but hung on a dedicated hat stand rather than Q's head. Shortly after he touched on another piece of Kendrick Lamar material with "M.A.A.D City", as he asked if Sydney or Auckland were more live. "Fuck Sydney', was the chanted response. 
 
All in all, it was a good show performed by a professional entertainer who was let down by shit sound, an odd space, and a city that has too long a history of violent hip-hop shows that can impede on fun times.

Images: Rachael Louise​

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