CONCERT REVIEW: Donald Glover/Childish Gambino @ TLA 5/11

Midway through the hip-hop portion of the show, my friend leaned in and asked, "I can't tell if he's being serious or not."

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CONCERT REVIEW: Donald Glover/Childish Gambino @ TLA 5/11

POSTED: Thursday, May 12, 2011, 1:00 PM

Filed Under: Music Concert Review

Childish Gambino with Reggie Watts. (oil on canvas, like a Monet)

Midway through the hip-hop portion of the show, my friend leaned in and said, “I can’t tell if he’s being serious or not.”

“Neither can I anymore.”

“Well, do you know his music?” (Almost everybody in the place was singing along.)

“Yeah,” I told her. “It’s all free for download.”

Under the name Childish Gambino, Glover (who’s best known as Troy on Community) does a lot of clever, lightning-fast rhyming about what a baller he is: hanging with famous people, calling out haters, trying to get across just how much play he gets now that he’s famous. His best line on the subject: “It's amazing how I eat more pussy than ALF.”

And that’s the thing. He’s so damn funny about how hardcore he is, most of the time, it’s hard to tell whether it’s all an act, or half an act, or what. His most quoted dis is probably “I'm the boss, Michael Scott, y'all bitches is just Phyllis” — but he knows Michael Scott’s not really an ideal boss to emulate, right? Yes he does. But there he is sayin’ it with his sixpack bared and rockin’ the Young Jeezy stance without a lick of irony.

Glover was his own opening act, starting the show right on time with a casual, standup set — dude owed me that after flaking in Austin (also owes me something else) — that often recalled Troy’s wide-eyed charm. There was also some bits that had him talking to a big screen with pre-recorded James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and himself (from the future, with a mustache). Really funny. The second act had him singing along to a video of comedian/beatboxer Reggie Watts an audio tape of John Legend. Musically, Childish Gambino does not play it safe. His backing band puts the violin and guitar at least as high in the mix as the drums, sometimes leading to harsh, distinctive melodies you don’t often hear at a hip-hop show. Most of the time this really, really worked. The night ended with my favorite Childish Gambino tune — and also his most earnest, probably — “Not Going Back.” Sample lyrics: “There’s a party at the top, you ain’t invited / But it’s lame, and all the bitches is fake / You think about your old girl and how breakin’ up’s a mistake.” That’s hardcore earnest.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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