
The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.


The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. The second half kicked off with the TikTok hit that started it all: 2019’s viral “Heart on Ice,” an addictive jam that first introduced the then-19-year-old to fans around the world, and ended with a bit of a jam sesh from his band.Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Wave chokes up through the opening bars, and even perched far out in the crowd, my usually staunch friend, who also lacked parental affection at a young age, had a tear in his eye. By the time we’re halfway through and Wave puts his hair down, wipes his sweat off, and begins the opening bars of “Abandoned,” where he talks about growing up feeling abandoned by his parents after his father went to prison, his mama remarried, and his uncle Derek took him in, he’s told us why he looks for love in all the wrong places. Wave gives a nod to his come-up with “Cuban Links” (featuring Kevin Gates), and bares his heart with “Dark Conversations,” and each song has the audience swaying and crying like a Sarah McLachlan concert over rhythmic trap beats. Like all anguished talents, the only thing he can do is tell us about it through his art.Ī sea of phones in the air Rod Wave on his SoulFly tour. Perhaps that’s why Wave is so prolific – three albums in three years, successively climbing to ever-higher spots critically and commercially. That 2020 collection is Wave at his darkest, with stark production and soulful piano tinkling.


The ecstatic audience hyped up with higher energy “Poison,” off 2019’s breakout debut Ghetto Gospel, bouncing to fast snares and autotuned despair as Wave aggressively reminded himself he “ Don’t want no more love, I feel it’s poison.” He took us through his depression and isolation with “Dark Clouds,” off second album Pray 4 Love. Petersburg born Z-lennial, né Rodarius Marcell Green, announced “I was kinda nervous.” His last two albums may have hit the top of the charts, but he’s just a shy big kid. If the heartbroken lyrics in the opener (“ Loving you is my greatest sin”) didn’t tell us this was the kind of smart softie everybody wants to give a hug, immediately, the St. Opening with “Street Runner” off March’s album Soulfly, for which the tour is eponymously named, Wave and his whole squad, mostly hometown friends, rocked a uniform of white tees and distressed blue jeans. The crowd was a mix of ages, from the boxer-braid crop-top crew trying to scrub X’s off their hands to adults their mama’s age. Wave’s show is as no-frills as you get and the most manufactured drama came from rising up to the stage slowly on a moving platform amidst smoke, drums, and soft choral chanting.
