The end is here. Donald Glover wows Kansas City crowd in last Childish Gambino show
“Kansas City, I am Childish Gambino and I am here to give you guys the show of your life.”
These words said by Donald Glover to open Monday’s show spoke to his confidence in his ability to perform and deliver. In fact, he even said previously if fans didn’t like the tour after the first song, they could leave and he’d refund them 100%.
Lucky for him, he doesn’t have to open his checkbook for any disappointed Kansas Citians.
No one left after the opening song “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥,” and very few people left after the credits started to roll before playing “Lithonia,” to close the night. Unless you were in the first few rows of the upper section, you weren’t sitting down for the nearly two-hour show.
With his three kids in attendance, Glover gave one last performance as Childish Gambino in Kansas City, and it’s a show the over 10,000 fans at T-Mobile Center won’t soon forget.
While there are more than 50 shows left on the tour and a movie accompanying his latest album, “Bando Stone And The New World,” it’s fair to call the show a celebration of the end of Childish Gambino. The set list takes fans through songs from all five albums, including fan favorites like “3005” and material not found on streaming services, like “Do Ya Like.”
It leaves a bittersweet feeling in the mind of Texas-born Christopher Cepeda, who was inspired to apply to the Kansas City Art Institute for filmmaking because of Glover’s creativity.
Cepeda was introduced to Glover’s music by his best friend of eight years who showed him the Childish Gambino character on their first interaction, and it changed his life. His girlfriend of five years, Rose Palmer, had a crush on Cepeda in college and started watching “Community,” the NBC sitcom that put Glover into the spotlight, to try and get on his good side.
“Childish Gambino will forever be the soundtrack to my high school years and college life,” Cepeda said. “I’m happy and it’ll be tied to that forever.”
All around the arena, fans could be seen singing every lyric and trying to keep up Glover’s energy. The showman jumped, danced, pranced and ran up and down the stage’s walkway, as never-before-seen technology moved above him.
The icicle-like light structures would shift up and down during each song, changing lights and shapes depending on what song was playing. During the opening song and “Cruisin’,” the structures displayed pre-recorded facial movements of Glover singing. It was something he was excited to see the fans react to, and the crowd gazed in awe as it changed.
At one point, the lights enclosed Glover like he was in a cage, and in another, he channeled his “Star Wars” background by grabbing hold of a single red light that dropped from the sky. Background dancers would perform their difficult, choreographed routines while in arms reach of the dangling structures. All of this happened as laser lights flashed throughout the arena, creating unique light displays.
He took full use of both stages on the ground, opening the show on the smaller, circular stage and donning a voice-changing helmet. The helmet would return at the halfway point of the set on the bigger stage, only to be used as a distraction so Glover could surprise fans by popping up on the small stage. Quite a few fans on the floor were running back and forth to get as close as possible to the 40-year-old artist.
The spectacle was worth driving from Sioux City, Iowa, to be the first in line at 5 a.m., according to brothers Hozay and Alberto Ruelas.
“The show was so innovative and fun, and hype just overall,” Hozay Ruelas said. “With this being the end of the Childish Gambino persona, we do think it was a fitting end to this chapter and it just felt really satisfying.”
Many fans felt that satisfaction during Glover’s “greatest hits” section, where he played the songs the fans wanted to hear the most. Even though the crowd knew every word to anthems like “Bonfire” and “IV. Sweatpants,” he’d stop the song early and question the crowd’s loyalty.
The singer continued to tease the young Kansas City crowd, even questioning if they were going to let Oklahoma City (the first stop on his tour) be the better crowd. The city that hosts the world record for the loudest stadium in the world knew how to respond.
“I’ll give it to you Kansas City, y’all hype as f---,” Glover said. “Congratulations.”
Opening act Willow’s mellow and relaxed tone started the night for Kansas City. She slowed down upbeat emo hits like “Meet Me At Our Spot” and “transparent soul” to match the jazzy undertones from her latest album “empathogen.” While the crowd didn’t know the words to every song, they were swaying and nodding along to the rhythm for the singer’s 40-minute setlist.
While Kansas City says goodbye to Childish Gambino, it’s yet to be determined if this is the last we’ll see of Donald Glover. In an interview with The Star Saturday, he said he “definitely wants to keep making music,” but doesn’t know when that time will come.
If this is the end, he went out with a bonfire with 10,000 of his greatest fans.
What was Childish Gambino’s Kansas City setlist?
Here’s every song Childish Gambino played during his nearly two-hour setlist in Kansas City Monday:
- “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥”
- “Survive,” featuring Chlöe
- “I. The Worst Guys,” featuring Chance the Rapper
- “Talk My S---,” featuring Amaare and Flo Milli
- “Got to Be”
- “In the Night,” featuring Jorja Smith and Amaarae
- “Yoshinoya”
- “To Be Hunted”
- “Witchy,” featuring KAYTRANADA
- “Steps Beach”
- “I. Crawl”
- “Cruisin’,” featuring Yeat
- “Feels Like Summer”
- “Why Go To The Party”
- “Human Sacrifice”
- “A Place Where Love Goes”
- “No Excuses,” featuring Ludwig Göransson
- “Me and Your Mama”
- “Do Ya Like”
- “This Is America”
- “IV. Sweatpants,” featuring JasonMartin
- “Sober”
- “L.E.S.”
- “Heartbeat”
- “Bonfire”
- “Freaks and Geeks”
- “Urn”
- “V. 3005”
- “Redbone”
- “Lithonia”
This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 8:54 AM.
