Watsky in Philadelphia at Union Transfer

Written By |Jared Lopez

Watsky is currently out on tour celebrating his new album release “COMPLAINT”.  On his stop in Philadelphia, Watsky’s concert could be summed up by these three things: Die hard fans, drum solos, and rapid fire verses.  Fans were dying to see Watsky from the get go, one fan shouting “there’s Watsky!” when anybody would appear on stage.  The crowd consisted of many adults around the ages of 21-26, which makes sense because Watsky started to gain a massive following around 2012 with a lot of the “90’s babies”.  He was one of the voices that carried our generation through tough, dark times and times of growth.  The fans in attendance really showed their appreciation of that through how much they interacted throughout the course of the night.  It was truly a celebration.

Rapid gunfire is the only way to describe Watsky’s flow.  It was something that was prominent throughout the entire course of not only his performance, but the opener before him, Grieves.  Grieves gave the audience something to look forward to and also foreshadowed what was to come next after him with Watsky coming out onto the stage.  Verse after verse, bar after bar, the lyrics wouldn’t stop coming at the audience. His stage presence was phenomenal much like Watsky’s. Feed the birds was also an opener for the show, and both members of that group were members of Watsky’s band.  They really set the tone from the start of their set and they made the event come full circle.  The whole show was put together in such a cohesive manner that you could tell was intentionally planned and thought out well in advance.

As soon as Watsky came out, the crowd exploded and the cheers echoed throughout the entire building.  The way he got the crowd involved was something I’ve never seen before at a hip hop concert.  Everybody stayed in sync when clapping for a chorus, everybody stayed in sync when they were moving side to side, he turned the crowd into a well oiled machine.  To top the night off, there was a drum solo that hinted with a lot of polyrhythms and intense grooves that sounded like something straight out of a prog band album.  Tons of different styles were showcased that night, it showed that Watsky is more than what he gained a following after, he’s a rockstar in his very own way.

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