Drake Pleases the People at Bridgestone

In the presence of a man dripping with charisma such as Canadian rap mogul Aubrey Drake Graham, it’s hard not to be enamored — even when he’s buttering you up with likely much of the same banter he used on the city he played at the previous tour stop. But if you take him at his word, Nashville is a truly special to the superstar Drake, who not only references Tennessee often in his lyrics but has ties by way of his father, Memphis-born musician Dennis Graham, who was at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday among a VIP section stocked with Graham kin.

Easing The Spin and the rest of the crowd into the evening was Roy Woods, Drake’s fellow Torontonian and a rising star on Drake’s OVO Sound roster. Clearly paying his dues on the undercard of a major tour, Woods got little more than a spotlight under which to wander the massive rectangular structure that sat in the middle of the arena floor. Rocking the jersey of the Tennessee Titans’ injured quarterback Marcus Mariota, Woods fired off trippy neo-R&B bangers that sounded just fine. But watching him traverse the dark set with all its fixtures covered kept reminding us that we were in for so much more.

Though it seems more recent, it's been four years since Atlanta hip-hop trio Migos ended their set in an all-out brawl at Nashville’s oft-maligned midsize haunt Limelight. But their rise to stardom has been so rapid that it takes a timestamp like that for it to sink in. The three MCs were decked out in jumpsuits corresponding with their trademark primary-color aesthetic and featuring fittings that suggested they might head out for a skydive after the show. The trio’s dynamic is a simple but intricately timed rapid-fire mix of fire-spit lyrics from Quavo, Auto-Tuned harmonies courtesy of Offset and staccato ad-libs from hype-man Takeoff. Hits like this spring’s “Walk It Talk It” and their still-ubiquitous 2016 track “Bad and Boujee” were big crowd pleasers. Interspersed between them were faves old and new, from 2015’s “Pipe It Up” to this year’s “Narcos.”

The house lights blinked to life once again, revealing a nearly packed arena that grew increasingly impatient during the 45 or so minutes it took to clear the stage for the main event. As if some subliminal cue had been planted, the crowd inexplicably came to life the moment Ella Mai’s 2017 sleeper hit “Boo’d Up” came over the house speakers. Folks jumped out of their seats to join in the sing-along, and just as it ended, the lights went down and Champagne Papi himself emerged, barely visible behind a mesh curtain surrounding the stage. The structure beneath Drizzy turned out to be a massive LED screen that had the MC walking over swimming pools and crashing waves one moment and hot lava the next.

The first section of the set moved swiftly. Drake kicked things off with cuts from his latest album Scorpion, like “8 out of 10” and “Mob Ties,” woven in with party-starters like “Energy” and “Started From the Bottom.” He ran breathlessly through tracks he’d guested on, such as Future collab “Jumpman,” Lil Baby’s “Yes, Indeed” and Gucci Mane’s “Both.” What followed was a hurried, rapid-fire medley during which Drake got all the old stuff — “Free Smoke,” “The Motto,” “HYFR,” “Headlines,” “Trophies” — over and done with before Migos returned to the stage.

For once, the man of the hour seemed a bit awkward and unsure of what to do with himself, wandering amid the Atlanta trio performing their breakout hit “Versace.” He eventually exited the stage to let Migos finish out their second set. Much like Disc 2 of Scorpion, Side B of the set (as dubbed by the graphics projected on the stage) was when Drake broke out the feels. He had the house swooning for his softer side on “That’s How You Feel” and “Controlla," as well as “Don’t Matter to Me” with its posthumous Michael Jackson feature. Dancers filtered onto the stage to help bring back the bounce on tunes like this year’s “Nice for What” and “In My Feelings” (whose run of 10 weeks with the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart pushes Drake to 29 weeks this year with a No. 1, breaking a 2004 record set by Usher). During the latter, the stage transformed into a gigantic iPhone scrolling through clips of fans participating in the Kiki Challenge, the song’s recent viral-sensation dance.

After a stretch of nearly 90 minutes, Drake took a break during the end segment of “God’s Plan” to once again express gratitude to a city he where he feels at “home,” on top of the obligatory promise of a quick return. The house went dark and eerily silent. Surely a showman such as Drizzy wouldn’t deny us an encore. No way was he going to leave without singing “Passionfruit,” right? Paramore did it at Municipal just more than a week ago. Come to think of it, that might have been the only hit in the man’s repertoire he hadn’t just stormed through. But the lights came up one more time, and the reality set in: That’s it, show’s over. Even without the hit we were waiting for, that was a beast of a concert, and damn we were we satisfied.

See our slideshow for more photos.

In The Spin — the Scene's live review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.