Childish Gambino

The title says all you need to know about seeing Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) and is why he shouts it at each of his shows. It sets the tone for the amazing experience you’re about to see and stays true to it. Gambino is one of my all-time favorite artists, and when he announced that his upcoming tour would be his last, I wanted to make sure that I at least got to see him perform live once. Fortunately, I’ve been extremely lucky to have seen him on this tour three times! The first being in Inglewood at the Forum (which would be his last show in LA), the second was in Palm Springs at Coachella, with the third being at Outside Lands in San Francisco. Even though I had seen that same set already, I loved it more and more each time. Two out of the three times I’ve seen him, I’ve been able to get extremely close and capture his essence in photographs. His energy, emotion, and overall presence is truly captivating and is what makes up the experience that is seeing Childish Gambino.

Along with the captivating visuals, choreography, and live instrumentals, the setlist ties everything together. It is the perfect mix of his two main albums covering fan-favorites like “3005”, “II. Worldstar”, “Redbone”, and “This is America”, while also surprising us with unreleased music that gives us a glimpse of what we can expect in his upcoming album. Even though each show had the same set, he does an exquisite job of making each show unique in its own special way.

At Outside Lands, it was all about his love for the bay area, the people, and how “Telegraph Ave is a real ass song!”

Anyone lucky enough to see Childish Gambino before he calls it quits will get to experience one of the greatest live performances from a generational artist, this performance goes down as a must see in my book!

Article and Photographs by: Maximus Rodriguez