Maximum Occupancy

I will disappoint you (or uphold the viewpoint you have that I am a vapid consumerist with no morals) with this one. You see my complaints about the Big Boi, M.I.A, and Kid Cudi show at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater won’t be about how M.I.A. started the disaster off with a (bamboo)bang(er), but how much I fucking hate the place.

It is massive and has been renamed. I believe the first time I was there, I was still able to snag affordable seats to see Elvis Costello with then coworkers, and it was still called the Circuit of the Americas. Since then I have been so frugal as to regulate myself to the general lawn for multi touring acts like Incubus and the Deftones.

So far my most memorable and enjoyable time was when I was able to see Death Cab for Cutie with friends. The tickets were free and the nostalgia was being aided by my first heavy go of drinking post baby.

“So I should have known better,” is then best way to sum up this show.

I should have known better how crappy it would be to park, get to the gates, have a bag that passes the arbitrary policies. I should have known better that the view and experience is crap, that I would be spending a lot of money on public high school cafeteria quality food and festival level merchandise. I should have know better that it would start on time and that if I was late, I would be missing what I paid for since I was more into the opening acts then the headliner.

Oh and I definitely knew better when it came to the antics M.I.A. would pull.

When I first bought the tickets for my husband and I, I reasoned it out with the idea that I would like all the music that would be playing. I would probably be asking my husband to stay out longer since I was the one that was more of a fan of all three artists.

The night of, I was the one ready to book it. We had a wet and unusually cool spring and summer, so the temperature was dipping and the walk and first part of the show was in the rain. I am always a bit late now of days, so by the time we got on the shuttle and through the front gates we can tell Big Boi was into his set.

Fuck.

He played a free show on campus in the last year that we both missed for legit reasons (work and we felt it would have been packed with the college youths). So this was a big pull for us to only get to see half of his songs. This would carry on for each artist.

What we did see was full of energy, he gave a standard rap performance with a DJ booth set up and another rapper to help back him up. He played a medley of his music, but it seemed most of it was the songs that he is known for in Outkast. Because we fucked up in missing his set, yes I would watch him again if given the chance.

Now remember how we missed most of M.I.A’s set as well? It was because I was hungry for the shit food and I needed to waste my money.

The Big Boi shirts were too expensive, but I knew I wanted something from my crazy girl M.I.A. Before the show we talked about how if she would be selling her anti-vac conspiracy wear and yes there was crumpled up tin foil looking bags that were so overpriced that it restored my faith that humanity will continue to grift no matter what the science says. I picked up one of her long sleeve shirts with a crazy pattern, excited to cosplay at the expense of my pocket book and at the expense of a woman with, I am sure, a complicated mental health state given the things she has said. And because it was chilly, I spent most of her set in the bathrooms behind the stage taking a piss and then layering that shit up.

We made it to the lawn to see her bring people on stage, hear a comment meant to bait the audience, and then get cut off mid “Paper Planes” for bringing all those people on stage. The crowd watched in silence as people twerked to what seemed like nothing, leaving them to build the theories that would start to pop up on Reddit.

While waiting in line before all of this though, two things happened. My cousins spotted me, that was the only legit cool bit: that they were there as well. I was my awkward self and ran off before we could selfie.

The other and actual pertinent thing was I did hear a female couple in the crowd call her MAGA with disgust, but for the most part just like Regina Spektor I would say the crowd was complicit, or more than likely (which is worst) they just did not give a fuck.

Then Kid Cudi came on and we listened to it for a bit before I was able to convince my husband I was done and I wanted to start the trek back home before everyone else. I would say he has passion for his music, but he is not the most talented singer or performer. Personally, his lyrics or beats just do not hit the same way that Big Boi or M.I.A. does. Still solid, but more of an at home album experience than live one for me. Which, is another “I should have known better” thing because duh I have listened to his albums.

While I am a sell out, let me just say that as much as I am trying to be woke I am also aware that I like music and art and movies and tv and jokes and books from people who are a range of dumb fucks to outright monsters.

I like M.I.A., but way before this concert I was made aware that she was saying some questionable things about American politics and health policies that made me take a step back from respecting her as much as I once did. What she had to say in the past about borders and the immigrant experience was something that I was not hearing in the music I was listening to at the time, but what she is saying now just makes me side eye her and do a southern, “bless her heart,” cause it is dumb and I am sure tied up to things and experiences in her life that I cannot understand. I am not going to stop liking her music, I just have to like it ironically (90s Alanis Morissette style).

It also consoles me that she is not an American voter, so while her poor opinions have an impact I wager it is less than Stevie Nicks. Who admitted in her show that she didn’t start voting until the last election and the apathy that rich (American) people express in that situation is more soul crushing than M.I.A.’s comments.

And yeah Kid Cudi and everyone else in the audience should have known better too.