You’ve heard of Odd Future, right? OFWGKTA? Tyler, The Creator and Hodgy Beats. Yeah, the Los Angeles rap crew are about as inescapable as news about Libya or Japan or Southwest Airlines, but as far as actually catching the group, unless you were at SXSW or live in the major cities of New York, London, or L.A., the chances are slim that you have witnessed the chaos.
And it is chaos. But, amazing and fun and controlled (barely) chaos. See, in case you haven’t realized, that Odd Future on record and Odd Future live are very different beasts. And it is almost important to differentiate them. Cuts we have heard, particularly Tyler, The Creator’s recorded music, are lyrically exceptional and musically creative, but when performed live, although they are the same songs with the same lyrics, the energy and spirit of the track are what is emphasized. On April 1st, at the Glass House in Pomona, a sold-out crowd (I hear tickets were gone in a day) helped capture this spirit and energy, creating 90 minutes of madness that put to rest any doubts about whether the crew could provide sustained entertainment beyond a couple songs.
From outside, Odd Future looked to have attracted a typical hipster crowd for their biggest homeshow to date. The date, a day before the giant underground hip hop festival Paid Dues would take place (and which they would not participate due to their Coachella booking), provided a nice warm-up for the many of us who would be travelling to distant San Bernardino the next day. But something happened between the outside line and the crowd inside. The crowd became more authentic and what you would expect out of a hip hop show. Massive cheers would erupt every time a face emerged from the backstage area. At one point, Hodgy Beats emerged to go meet someone in the crowd, causing an eruption from the crowd and cries of “Hodgy,” as if the entire audience were on a first-name basis with the group.
On the bill, there was a promised DJ set from Syd, which was about one song in length and then saw a misstart to the opener, “Sandwitches.” Tyler opened the set from off the stage and rushed into sight at the end of the first verse; sporting his now-traditional ski mask he flew into the crowd for the first “wolf gang” chant. Hodgy Beats then made a similar entrance for his verse, and song after song, members would gradually fill the stage (Left Brain was the first addition) until there was quite the party going on in Pomona.
Though the set’s biggest numbers were the most well-known (“French,” “Yonkers”– at which Tyler even noted that it was his favorite), the highlights came from two unexpected moments. The first was a beat-less flow that seemed to last the length of a full-length track (in fact, it might have very well been a full-length track) in which Tyler and Hodgy seemed seamlessly in-tune with each other and caused and explosive approval after completion. The other was the debut of a new track from Tyler’s upcoming Goblin that was produced by Left Brain. The track was faster than anything else in the set and really made Tyler work for his rhymes. But, he pulled it off and gave a nice glimpse into what we can expect in a month.
But more than the sound or execution of the track, was how it was introduced. You could see that Tyler was genuinely excited, maybe even proud of the track that his friend produced. Yes, Odd Future are not merely Tyler and The Creators. They are a team and they very much showed it on Friday night. When a water bottle flew on stage (one of countless things that would be thrown from the audience), Hodgy became quite serious and said “if anyone up here gets hit with a water bottle, I am coming down there and fucking you up.” Because of the rowdiness and general agression at the show (there was moshing… at a rap show), it was somewhat surprising that everything went as smoothly as it did, but maybe that was all part of the plan,
Because, after having seen them just a couple weeks back, there was one notable difference in this Odd Future: somehow, they had become professionals. Sure, the set kind of ended abruptly with the members just sort of leaving without much ado, but to sustain an audience for 90-minutes of non-stop intensity is quite a feat. Early in the set, the guys hammed it up for photographers and were careful not to really start the craziness until after the photopit had emptied 3 songs in. From there, it was all systems go and the goal wasn’t to make a scene or make a statement, it was to have fun. For all of Odd Future’s toughness, they are not afraid to smile, not afraid to show when they are happy with a song, and not afraid to act young. I’m sure it will not always be this smooth (and that is ultimately what the Pomona show was — smooth), but Odd Future has got one thing right from very early on — they are good at being themselves. And, luckily, those people are fascinating and talented.
