Though a significant complaint, Ocean's tour is The channel ORANGE Tour, in support of his first major release. One complaint from several members of the audience was that he only played a couple of songs off of his two mixtapes, and chose not to play another fan favorite off of nostalgia, ULTRA, "Swim Good," during the 80-minute set. Other favorites included "Novacane" ( nostalgia, ULTRA), "Lost" ( channel ORANGE), "Pilot Jones" ( channel ORANGE) and "Sweet Life" ( channel ORANGE). The lights exploded in a strobe-like fashion as he stood under them, confidently nodding his head to the beat and staring at the raucous crowd. Ocean played several favorites off his latest release, including obvious fan favorite, "Pyramids," a nearly ten-minute electronic tune that will soon be blaring in every club from here to Shanghai. One instance was during the first single off of channel ORANGE, "Thinkin’ Bout You," in which the chorus requires a range that a very small percentage of men on this planet can hit. Standing 15 feet from the stage, I heard moments that his voice actually fluttered higher than on his actual recordings. Given his standout performance, there were several rumors floating around at the show’s end that Ocean had been lip syncing. His voice is as flawless live as it is on the mixtapes nostalgia, Ultra and lonny BREAUX and his debut album channel ORANGE (released Tuesday). Ocean has one of the best voices in music today and is an accomplished songwriter (a rare combination in modern music), having written songs not only for himself, but also for the likes of Justin Beiber, Brandy and nine-time Grammy winner, John Legend. But this is not about Frank Ocean’s sexual orientation. On Thursday night, couples of all persuasions were seen throughout the crowd swaying to Ocean’s weighty love songs.
The amount of approval and support Ocean has received from the hip hop community is unparalleled (see CultureMap's story about Beyonce’s poem to Ocean). In a genre of music known for its hetero-normativity and blatant womanizing, this revelation caught the attention of the industry. He's one of the first artists in hip-hop and R&B to announce that he has had a same-sex relationship. When I arrived at 8:20 p.m., the place was packed and three of Ocean’s tour t-shirt options were already sold out.Īround 9:15 p.m., the lights dimmed and the expected squeal of the crowd erupted as Frank Ocean, wearing a Japanese flag bandana, strolled to the microphone with a humble grin on his face.įrank Ocean, also of scandal-ridden Odd Future, is currently one of the most hyped artists in not only R&B, but music in general. The eager crowd of 1,200 arrived early to see R&B’s most buzzed-about icon since R. The line wrapped around the block, roughly three people wide. As I drove by the entrance to La Zona Rosa on Thursday night, I was struck with one question: Since when did people in Austin start showing up to a concert on time?
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