Minnesota took the final leg of his “Collective Identity” tour through the lovely sunshine state right before the holidays. What better place to play in the middle of December than Miami. Beautiful weather and artistic surroundings at a venue called “The Stage” provided a great setting for a Thursday evening event. Massive Ideas put on the event and always do a great job of providing a family type vibe amongst the crowd and artists. It’s not always a simple task to set a chill vibe in Miami.
Cry Wolf was the opener for this stop of the tour. Playing a mixture of heavier electro and dubstep sounds blended with his vocals (which he performed live) provided a style that was pretty unique. It’s a difficult task for opening artists to hold my attention most of the time. When he starting singing though it was hard not to pay attention. I gave him props after the show and I’m definitely curious to see how his sound develops.
Minnesota took the stage around 1am and came out swinging. The set offered a mixture of his own productions, heavy dance tracks that you don’t normally hear, and hip hop samples that kept the entire crowd involved and singing along. Minnesota propelled the crowd with some Trap, Dubstep, Hip Hop remixes, and his own Astral Projection sounds, which are always a personal favorite of mine. Some things that stood out from the night were the Biggie mash up from his Astral Projections mixtape, Kanye West’s Black Slaves remix, and a really cool mash up with “Yoga Pants”.
Crowd reactions varied from head banging to flowing hands in the air which is always a good sign because that means there wasn’t to much of one style to make people bored or worn out to fast. That is not always an easy task but Minnesota handled it swimmingly. Be sure to check him out next time he’s in your area or at a festival you’re attending.