Donald Glover seems determined on becoming one of the best at everything he decides to do. First off he became one of the most sought after actors when he appeared on shows such as Community, he's also a dab hand at stand up comedy and he's also pretty handy when it comes to script writing, as his mini 'movie' Clapping For All The Wrong Reasons perfectly showed. Finally, and most importantly for music lovers such as ourselves, his musical alias Childish Gambino is rapidly becoming one of the most rounded artists in the industry.
Fresh off the amazing success that his latest album Because The Internet has brought (and deservedly so), the Cali native has embarked on his world tour, which will take him to countries including England, Holland and Germany before he heads back to the US and Canada to take on a twenty three date stint. Whilst he was over in England, Gambino headed into the famous Radio 1 Live Lounge, which has hosted many of the worlds biggest stars performing live tracks for the station. Alongside performing "3005", arguably his biggest hit from his latest album, Gambino also decided to cover PM Dawn's classic hit "I'd Die Without You". In the flawless performance that Childish gave, it gave the audience a chance to see the other side to his rapping alter ego, a soulful singing voice that really showcases an impeccable range. Backed by his bassist and keyboard player, Donald swoons his way through the track, in a performance that really gave off some laid back and relaxing vibes.
I was lucky enough to be at his sold out show in Manchester last night, and what followed was arguably one of the best concerts I've ever been to (and I've been to a lot). Backed by a four-piece band, and in the one of Manchester's most intimate settings at Gorilla, Gambino bounced and danced his way through some of the biggest tracks from his latest work, including "The Crawl", "3005" and "Sweatpants", before cutting back to some of his earlier joints that had the fans rapping and singing along to his every word, with "Heartbeat" drawing arguably the biggest reaction from the packed out audience. The connection and energy shared between Gambino and the crowd was on full blast from start to finish, even during the slower interlude moments there was an air of anticipation.
Towards the end of the hour long performance, Gambino called on his band to make a beat on the spot whilst he freestyled over it, dropping in a couple of Manchester references that made the crowd go wild. As the final notes rang out and Gambino dropped the mic and walked off the stage, the awestruck crowd started chants of 'Worldstar', in reference to the track of the same name taken from Because The Internet, I left the building with an overwhelming feeling that I'd witnessed something truly remarkable, with everything from the bands sound, to the energy that they all gave off making me mark this down as one of the best shows I, and Manchester has seen in a while.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_9U-zkEPAI[/youtube]
