Aug 23

Aug 23 Show Review: Kid Cudi Brings "To The Moon" World Tour To Oakland

Kid Cudi
w/ Denzel Curry, Strick
Oakland Arena
Oakland, CA
August 21st, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

It doesn’t really matter if Kid Cudi has new material or not; fans will turn out in droves to see him perform. The visionary rapper, singer, and producer doesn’t tour as much as he used to anymore; on his current run, there are only 27 tour dates, and only about half of those are in North America. Nowadays, a Kid Cudi tour is a must-see pilgrimage for hip-hop fans, with fans flocking for miles throughout the Bay Area to attend the only Northern California date of his current “To The Moon” World Tour in Oakland, CA. The title of the tour is a play on the Man on the Moon album titles that Kid Cudi (stage name for Scott Mescudi) has embraced over the years, with 2020 bringing forth the third title in the series, Man on the Moon III. \

The show featured two openers, the first being Strick, a rapper and singer from North Carolina that’s been making a name for himself over the last two years. Curenntly signed to Young Thug’s YSL Records, Strick knows how to get the crowds attention, and he did a great job of warming up the room. The venue was pretty full by this point, but fans were still trickling in throughout the set, and I thought he was effective at grabbing everyone’s attention. Denzel Curryfollowed. With all due respect to Mescudi, Curry blew everyone out of the water that evening. We covered his headlining show back at The Warfield earlier this year, and Curry raps like someone is going to take the mic away from him at any moment, using every second to prove his worth. I guarantee he will be headlining venues like Oakland Arena in the near future, as long as he keeps delivering the type of music, the showmanship, and the energy that he does. He’s one of hip-hop’s most exciting performers, and the roar from throughout the crowd for Curry was just as deafening as it was for Cudi.

Utilizing a stage production that I keep wanting to call “The Void”, the lights went down as Cudi stepped through the door at the back of the stage. It’s a neat trick, and it was a fun aspect of the performance. The idea is that the arena is his inner mind. He has walked into his mind, and a narrator (voiced by the incredible Keith David) is guiding Scott Mescudi on a journey through his inner self. The show starts off with a great deal of excitement; chants of “CUDI! CUDI” fill the arena before the set begins, with Mescudi launching into “something old”. The crowd loses their shit as the intro to A Kid Named Cudi’s “Down & Out” pours through the speakers. The energy is quickly brought back down during “Tequila Shots”, as red lasers decorate the arena in an awe-inspiring fashion. “She Knows This” and “Dive” bring the energy back up as an unexpected batch of pyrotechnics goes off around the elaborately decorated stage.

The middle portion of Cudi’s show didn’t completely land with me, and quite honestly, I did find myself a little bored at times. Portions of the show were a little too slow for my taste. The best part of this show, for me, was watching his fans go crazy at the beginning of each song. It didn’t matter what song he pulled out of the set list; the second the intro would start, the arena became deafening from the cheers. This was a tour designed specifically for the fans as Mescudi pulled out a selection of songs that he hasn’t played years, including “Just What I Am” (Indicudi), “T.G.I.F.” (My Name Is Cudi) and “Man On The Moon (The Anthem)” (My Name Is Cudi). Pre-encore, the set concluded with a selection of Kid Cudi’s collaboration with dance music producers as he performed “Memories” (David Guetta) and “Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare) (Steve Aoki).

The show concluded with Mescudi returning to the stage to perform A Kid Named Cudi’s “The Prayer” and The Boy Who Flew To The Moon (Vol 1)’s “love.” Both of these tracks haven’t been played by Cudi in several years, and their inclusion in the set proved to be one of the more exciting moments of the “To The Moon” tour. While certain moments of the show just didn’t hit the mark for me, there’s no denying the Kid Cudi is an incredible musician and composer of some of the biggest songs in the hip-hop and pop music landscapes. His fanbase is as dedicated as ever, and his Oakland Arena show is proof that he’ll still be selling out arenas for years to come.

Kid Cudi Set List
Down & Out
Tequila Shots
She Knows This
Dive
Ghost!
Just What I Am
T.G.I.F.
Sad People
Solo Dolo, Pt. III
By Design
Man on the Moon (The Anthem)
Mr. Rager
The Void
Memories (David Guetta cover)
Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)