If GelreDome fell asleep last year due to the excruciatingly bad football of Vitesse, the stadium woke up again on Friday night. Travis Scott also proved to be one big bundle of energy in Arnhem, who didn’t slow down for a single moment for a hundred minutes. And the American is still feinin’ for more.
‘Welcome to Utopia. Before the show starts, open that shi’ up.’ A little after half past nine, a voice resounds through the GelreDome. And those who have followed Scott’s American tour a little know: it’s time. And yes, HYAENA starts, Scott comes on, the first of hundreds of moshpits is opened, and a crazy ride of almost two hours can begin.
Scott has performed in the Netherlands several times, but has never given a solo show here. There were rumors that he would tour with Drake this summer. That did not happen and a tour of his own did not seem to be in the cards either. Until the American suddenly announced this show early last month.
Monday marks a year since Scott last performed in the Netherlands. Three weeks before the release of Utopia, he looked a bit worn out at Rolling Loud Rotterdam. How different things are now. His new album has given him new energy, although it is noticeable that the American has become a bit more calculating.
That doesn’t change the fact that Scott still pulls out all the stops and puts on a very solid show. Yes, he’s an hour late, but the first time Scott shows up on time is yet to come. Moreover: because the doors only open two and a half hours later than planned due to a ‘production check’, half the stadium is still outside at half past eight. Inside, in the meantime, literally, only a band with cricket sounds can be heard.
That fortunately makes way for a very varied setlist at half past nine, in which Scott leaves more than enough room for a cross-section of his entire discography. We hear a lot of work from Utopia, but also old songs that the American didn’t play in Rotterdam, such as megahit Nightcrawler. A track that Scott announces by already using the lyric ‘when the night calls’ during Type Shit, which really lights the fuse in the powder keg with this crowd.
And whoever thinks that the crowd consists only of young fans will be disappointed. Because who do we see happily diving into the moshpit? None other than Katja Schuurman. And elsewhere, there are also plenty of forty- and fifty-somethings moshing with the energy of a seventeen-year-old.
Adding the extra show on Sunday was perhaps a bit too much. Tickets were still going for a few tens on Ticketswap, it is certainly not sold out. The fact that, like in America, there is no supporting program and special guests at a show of this size, makes the whole thing a bit bare and also a bit meager for the more than a hundred euros that a ticket costs.
On the other hand: you can wonder how many fans would have survived such a full show. ‘Take it easy’ is not a phrase that Scott is familiar with and a set of almost two hours long is fine in that respect. Especially since the American goes the extra mile in the last half hour.
‘Are you feinin’ for more?!’ And again. And again. Just like in America, Scott plays Fe!n, the biggest, also somewhat overplayed hit of Utopia, six times. It has something, but also feels somewhat copied and hackneyed, and also ensures that Scott has no room left for older gems like Stargazing or 3500.
There is room for: the leg-breaking triple act Antidote, Sicko Mode and Goosebumps at the end. With that, Scott also sucks away the last bits of energy from the Arnhem audience. Telekinesis, with that soothing SZA feature, then proves to be the perfect, rustic and almost contrary conclusion to this show. Still feinin’ for more? Scott will be here again on Sunday.
Seen: June 28, 2024 in GelreDome, Arnhem