Colorado music enthusiasts have been treated in being a part of Experimental Noise Rapper JPEGMAFIA’s methodical rise in the past year and a half.
In that time, literal crowds of his loyal fan base have been spoiled enough to witness him exert all types of unhinged energy on a stage here in Denver four times, each with a significant rise in importance. First in 2018 when he opened for Injury Reserve at Globe Hall in the spring of 2018, then seeing an upgrade solely in reach as he brought his electrifying performance to the Ogden Theatre when he opened for Vince Staples in the spring of 2019, and quickly returning with a monumental opportunity to open for Flume at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre just this past summer. His most recent gift to the Colorado music scene saw him headline his tour at the Bluebird Theater where a rowdy yet devoted mob of fans hung on his every word while he ripped through an hour-long set on a Thursday night.
It all began with Butch Dawson’s DJ, Shido, providing a brief intro of hits to warm the crowd up before the fellow Baltimore rapper fulfilled his duties as the opener for the night. That is not to say he didn’t hold his own quite the opposite actually, as the duo had half of the crowd competing against the other for who could bring more energy to the room. While those in the room may not have had his lyrics as readily accessible in their memory to shout back as they did for Peggy, their willingness to foster crowd participation in having attendees scream lines from upcoming songs in their set provided a unique experience for everyone in the room. A particular concertgoer had the experience of a lifetime as Butch Dawson had him brought up to the stage to help him rap the hook of one of the last songs of his set. I cannot imagine this performance was lost on anyone in the room that night and it’s safe to say Butch Dawson has earned a ton of new fans from the mountain state.
As for Peggy’s time on the stage, it is exactly what you would expect from a set of his. A mix of raw aggression, provocative statements in his lyrics and stage banter, without forgetting to be humorous along the way. The group of Zealous fans went feral for tracks like Real Nega, and 1539 Calvert St. Yet still passionately sang along to tracks like All My Heroes Are Cornballs and Thot Tactics. They even displayed a lot of patience as JPEGMAFIA went off on a tangential freestyle that ended with the promise to party after the inevitable death of Donald Trump. With being said, Peggy fed off this energy making his way into the crowd twice to scream alongside his eager fans. While not forgetting to thank everyone for their support on that night as they could have “just downloaded the songs and listened to them at home” before the lights cut to black at the end of the night.
Photos/Reviw by Jalen Lomax