Oliver Tree Vibes at The Phoenix

As I stood waiting to enter the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, I knew the night was going to be weird. There was a person in front of me with a multi-colored mohawk and behind me there were two young people with matching outfits designed to look like bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos. It was a diverse audience that came out to see Oliver Tree and the energy among them was very high.

After a few hours of club music, the opener went out. The opener was Estonian rapper, singer, and conceptual artist Tommy Cash. Tommy Cash instantly confirmed my theory about the concert falling into the weird category. He rode a modified hoverboard his entire set and keep calm energy as he did robotic dance moves and spins with the hoverboard. The crowd quickly got into Tommy’s style and started dancing along with the music and cheering every time he did a spin. It might not have been the best performance musically, but it was definitely a memorable and fun performance.

Finally, Oliver Tree came out onto the stage. He was in a wheelchair. He explained to everyone that he had injured his foot doing a stunt for his latest music video. Many audience members I spoke to were disappointed by this because they believed that he did not hurt himself and it was all a publicity stunt for his next video release. I don’t know if the injury was real or not, but I do know that even though he wasn’t running around the stage like he normally does, he still put on a very energetic performance. He did wheelies with the chair and rocked his head so quickly back and forth I thought he was going to give himself whiplash. Vocally he did well, it wasn’t spot on at all parts, but the audience came for his energetic and over the top personality and less so his vocal ability.

It was a weird, fun, and energetic show. I am sure everyone that was there will remember it for a long time.

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