“Houston, What been going on?!” yelled Denzel Curry as he paced back and forth across the 713 Music Hall stage. Dressed in camo shorts and a black shirt he briefly stopped on the side of the stage to adjust his earpiece before turning back to the crowd. “Raise your hand if COVID tried to take you out because it tried to take me out twice!”
The crowd laughed as Curry light-heartedly described being locked up in the house for the past two years.
“We saw a lot during quarantine. We saw insurgence. We’ve seen riots. We’ve seen police do some bullshit and we’re all going through some shit right now. It’s a battle out here. But you know what the real battle is for your mind!”
The crowd screamed as the opening notes for “Mental” blasted through the speakers. Curry ran across the stage encouraging fans to jump along with the music.
Denzel Curry touched down in Houston Saturday night with the Melt My Eyez tour named after his fifth studio album. The Florida rapper has been steadily building his fanbase since coming on the scene as part of SpaceHostPurp’s collective Raider Klan. His most recent offering, Melt My Eyez See Your Future, has gained critical acclaim and has also given fans the truest look at who Curry is as an artist.
Pushing aside the alter egos that have appeared on his previous work, his latest album is uniquely Curry. The lead single “Walkin’” was a crowd favorite Saturday night as those in attendance bounced along and sang its memorable chorus. Curry’s stage was simple, with just a DJ and a projected screen backing him and flashing images accompanying the music.
During his performance of “X-Wing” a video of the famous fighter jet from Star Wars appeared behind Curry with a trail of fire leaving its engines.
The truth is Curry doesn’t need a lot of extras because his stage presence is powerful enough to carry the show on its own. When he’s not performing a song he’s making jokes, talking with the audience, telling stories, and keeping the crowd enthralled. At one point he’s positioning himself like Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter and throwing a fake fireball into the crowd to a wave of cheers and then the next moment he’s stopping the show to break up a fight and keep the audience under control.
“Security, just move one of them to one side of the stage and the other to the other side,” he instructed as the house lights came on after two audience members got physical with each other. “No need to kick the out. Ya’ll paid too much money to be out here like that.”
The fight didn’t take away from the rest of the night and, thanks to Curry’s quick eye and control of the crowd, fans walked away from a concert they really enjoyed.
“I’m just excited to be here and I’m excited Denzel Curry is touring after COVID,” said Tui Kennington after emerging from a mosh pit. “Its also great to see some of the people he brought out like Redveil and he just had super high energy. I’m just happy we’re all back out.”
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
