Frank Ocean at the Paradise

On Saturday, July 28th, Frank Ocean brought the Channel Orange tour to the Paradise Rock Club in Allston, MA. The show sold out in three days and was highly anticipated because it was his first solo performance in Boston ever!

The show started with screams from the crowd as Frank walked out with one guitarist, sat on his stool, and began the show with an acoustic cover of Sade’s “By Your Side.” The background was rotating images but at moments the background was a grid of television screens with random images on it. Before the drummer and second guitarist came out, Frank performed his unreleased track “Summer Remains” to the crowd. About half the people in the crowd knew the song and out of those people who did, they knew every word to the song. The one thing I can say about Frank Ocean fans is that they are dedicated.

As “Summer Remains” concludes, Frank got off the stool, a second guitarist and drummer came out, and he immediately went into “Thinkin About You” where the crowd went wild and sang along to every word. This was my first R&B show ever and it was interesting to see the women go crazy for him. It was non-stop screaming for the whole hour and fifteen minute set. One take away from this concert is that I need to learn how to sing. Ha! Anyway, Frank performed a bunch of tracks off of his Channel Orange album such as “Sweet Life”, “Forrest Gump”, Super Rich Kids” (sans Earl Sweatshirt, disappointingly), ‘Crack Rock”, “Lost”, and “Bad Religion.” He even performed his hits “Novacane” and “Strawberry Swing” off of the Nostalgia/Ultra project. Everybody knew every single word to these songs.

It was great being one of the early stops on the tour because he brought nothing but energy the whole time. Frank Ocean is a great performer and really knew how to interact with the crowd. If you haven’t heard Channel Orange yet, make sure you go out and listen to it here!

By Malcolm Gray

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