By: Kaden Severn
It’s always a good time when Skizzy Mars comes to town. The night was opened up by artist ZAIA. He announced that this was his first ever tour and that he was so excited. His music reminded me somewhat of Lil Uzi Vert as a kind of R&B/Hip Hop sound fused with a punk rock type vibe. His songs were sung beautifully but when it was time to party ZAIA had amazing crowd work. I was really enjoying the set and the crowd was too! It was one of the best sets I’ve ever seen from an opener. When I got home I got on Spotify and checked out his music!
Next was singer Yoshi Flower. While I wasn’t familiar with his music, many in the crowd were. As I was chatting to some high school students in the front row I discovered that he had built up quite the following! A green light illuminated the stage and Yoshi with no intro came out by himself with just his guitar and began to play. His sound was pretty unique. The music was vibey but then always dropped really hard. Most of the songs Yoshi would just casually stand in front of the mic not moving much. But when it would drop he went absolutely bonkers! Running around and setting the mood for Skizzy to come out!
Skizzy came out with a huge grin on his face and started his set with a few songs off his latest album “Free Skizzy Mars”. For his third song, he performed the sing along “Do You There” and it was amazing. I think everyone around my age remembers listening to that song in middle school. Skizzy mars older stuff has always been in my friend groups music rotation. There was a good mix of newer songs off the new album and then his more well known classics. Yoshi Flower even came back out and performed his part on the Skizzy Mars song “All the Time”
Before Skiz performed “Girl on a Train” he asked the audience to put a light up. I’ve seen a lot of artists tell fans to put their phones up but I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than for this song. The beautiful song about seeing a gorgeous stranger and just wishing you knew her is arguably Skizzy’s most well known song and so everyone and I mean everyone was singing along. It was truly a really amazing moment to see the phone lights and hear voices singing in unison!
Another stand out moment was his final song (before the encore) Afraid, the lyrics talk about being scared of all these things that we as humans have no control over and Skizzy gets really vulnerable with it. Most headlining acts often times have big intricate sets and backgrounds but Skizzy only had these glowing letters spelling out his name and I think the simple set really allowed for a more emotional and personal concert experience for everyone. He told the crowd he loved performing in Utah before heading off the stage.
Chants of “Skiz Again” quickly rang throughout the venue and sure enough, he came out for an encore and did that exact song! Everyone went nuts, this being the biggest song off the new album. We also got treated to a second encore song (and my personal favorite Skizzy Mars song) “2006”. The vibey song was a great end to the night and I will be sure to be there next time Skizzy’s in town!