Travis Scott has a notable history with Milwaukee, and on Wednesday night, he etched another chapter with his “Utopia Presents Circus Maximus” world tour.
Scott’s story with Milwaukee dates back to the days when he was selling out The Eagles Ballroom twice within the course of ten days and co-headlining shows with fellow hip hop heavyweight Young Thug before that. In 2019, his “Astroworld” Tour was the first hip-hop show at Fiserv Forum, complete with fans taking carnival rides, loads of pyrotechnics and a rollercoaster truss system taking him above the arena floor. Wednesday night’s spectacle was on par with his last visit if not above it, featuring a sprawling stage that covered most of the floor level of the building, and saw the Houston rapper utilizing every inch of it and the air above it, too.
After a trio of openers in Babyface Ray, Skilla Baby and Veeze, the Fiserv Forum crowd was buzzing, with fans jockeying around a stage designed to look like an ancient civilization for the best vantage point. With only the sound of cicadas piped into the arena sound system, that gave idle hands the time to break out the wave during a changeover. It didn’t take long to get those bodies moving, however, once an opening montage gave way to “Hyaena” off "Utopia." It would be the start of a two-hour burst of unrelenting energy, pyro and stage production that wouldn’t slow down or stumble once.
In total, 13 tracks from "Utopia" would make the set list on Wednesday night, and that didn’t even make up more than half of the nearly 30-song set. Scott would span the majority of his discography throughout the night, occasionally calling for his day-one fans to help him out before cuts like “3500” and “Nightcrawler.” Rather than relying on a long list of commercially successful singles, he opted for album cuts more often than not to keep the crowd bouncing and moshing along. His portion of collabs with Lil Uzi Vert on “Aye” and Playboi Carti on “Backrooms” drew big reactions early, as well. No song felt like a chance for him to take a breather, and frankly, he probably couldn’t afford to take one.
In an era of music and culture that has seen historically low attention spans, the Cactus Jack rapper found a way to keep an arena full of kids engaged for two hours, which should be a victory in itself. Scott, in an outfit that included football-style shoulder pads and faux-futuristic sunglasses, couldn’t stay still if he tried, bouncing from platform to platform across the zig-zagging stage layout. When he wasn’t moving, something on the stage was. At one point, the heads of the vaguely Mayan-looking stone sculptures on stage would begin to levitate, with the eyelets of said sculptures shooting lasers out into the crowd. A platform in the middle of the stage would bring Scott roughly to the height of the scoreboard under normal circumstances, making him the literal center of attention. This is all while flames, fireworks and smoke would fill the arena at any given point. He would select fans on occasion to ride on top of one of the sculpture heads across the arena floor, testing the limits of modern day cable rigging. For any other performer, this would be a once in a lifetime performance, but for Travis Scott, it’s a Wednesday night in the Midwest.
When your calling card is over-the-top performances, you have to deliver, and there was no questioning that aspect to Scott’s live show. In fact, everything felt over-the-top. Each bass drop could rattle you to your core. Every autotuned scream felt a little louder than the last. Just about anything on stage could explode at any point. Nothing felt like it was off limits, and nothing from Travis felt like he was holding back. Couple that with a crowd that had been forming mosh pits since the first opener of the night, and you had an arena that felt like a powder keg, with Scott trying anything and everything to make it blow.
The singles would, naturally, start dropping towards the back half of the set, but even then, they were interspersed with energetic album tracks and a healthy dose of “Fein” from "Utopia." The Playboi Carti collaboration is a standout on the album and has opening synth chords that can ignite a crowd as soon as they hit, which it did on Wednesday. Then he played it again, just a few songs later. After that, he would call out one side of the arena, and the beat would drop again. Then another side. Then the people in the second level … you get where I’m going with this. In total, “Fein” would ring out seven times on Wednesday night, but not once did it wear out its welcome. That’s certainly how you know you have a hit on your hands, or rather a testament to both audience and performer. “Fein” would eventually give way to smashes “Sicko Mode,” “Antidote” and “Goosebumps,” before Scott would make his exit on “Telekinesis,” with a camera following him offstage deep into the hallways of the arena backstage.
From start to finish, the "Utopia" tour was sensory overload of the highest regard. While there were phones out all night, Travis Scott never gave the Fiserv Forum crowd a chance to swipe away from the camera app, which is, at this point, the mark of an upper echelon performer in the world of hip-hop. After a barrage of music for nearly 120 minutes straight, there was no need for an encore and no opportunity for a curtain call. Both fans and Scott gave their all on Wednesday, and that’s when a performance can feel the most worthwhile.
