Kendrick Lamar & SZA06.13.25
Toronto, ON
Kendrick Lamar reigns supreme at the top of my concert-going metrics, with this being my fourth time seeing him live. But so much has changed since the last time I saw him, in 2022, also in Toronto. A decisive takedown of Drake last year has seen him rise to a new level of prominence, having headlined the Super Bowl earlier this year. And now it's wild to see him headlining the Skydome on Drake's home turf in Toronto, before Drake himself has ever even headlined the Skydome.
But this wasn't just Kendrick's show, it was also SZA's, it being a co-headlining tour with the two former labelmates. This is what I was promised back in 2018 for the Championship Tour, when SZA had to drop out due to vocal issues. So this has been a long time coming for me. Plus, I switched up plans to take in this Toronto show, the second of two nights in the city, as I had initially bought tickets for the Seattle show. It's more meaningful to see Kendrick in Toronto, for reasons as stated above, but mostly to inject more of my tourism dollars into the Canadian economy.
My journey to the show was a total mess, having taken a red-eye flight from Vancouver to Toronto, crashing at my friend's place in Markham for a few hours, waking up to realize the GO Train was not running to Union Station, witnessing the replacement GO bus drive right past me at the station, then finally taking an Uber with another stranded concertgoer to Finch Station to catch the subway downtown. All the while losing my AirPods and concert earplugs in the aforementioned Uber. Nothing that a quick trip to Shoppers for some foam earplugs couldn't fix, but the retrieval of the AirPods is still pending.
Regardless, I did make it there with some time to spare, but certainly not enough time to stand in the impossibly long merch line.
Mustard opened the night with a DJ set, playing a bunch of classic 2010s hip-hop tracks. But I think he perplexed the crowd when he finished up with fun.'s "We Are Young" and Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA". Perhaps he forgot he was in Canada with the latter.
But as far as the main acts, this wasn't your typical co-headlining set, as Kendrick and SZA alternated sets, cleverly using some of their collaborations as transitions ("30 for 30", "Doves in the Wind"). The result was a mammoth, nearly three hour set, stretching from around 8:20pm to shortly after 11:00pm.
It was a little hard to tell what was going on from the 200 level, but the stage design was pretty awesome, with a massive LED screen rotating through visuals, and some large scale props, like an actual GNX (and later a giant GNX model), SZA riding a giant bug, and tons of greenery.
Both Kendrick and SZA drew a lot from their most recent albums, GNX and SOS/Lana, respectively. "All The Stars" was probably my favourite collaborative performance of the night, especially the the strobe lights beaming up the roof of the dome. I just wish they had the roof open for the night, but I get that it probably wasn't feasible with the late sunset and the heavy emphasis on the lighting with the stage design.
I do think SZA's stage presence has noticeably improved from when I saw her previously, back in early 2023 on the SOS tour. She seems more confident and comfortable on stage, and more interactive with the crowd. Loved that the played a bunch of cuts from Ctrl, particularly pulling out "Drew Barrymore" for the first time this tour. "The Weekend" and "Love Galore" as well. And SOS/Lana were obviously well represented, my favourites being "Kill Bill", "Good Days", "Scorsese Baby Daddy", and "BMF". Bit of a shame to see "Seek & Destroy" cut from the set, and "Saturn" not played at all.
Kendrick worked his way through most of GNX, throwing in some classics here and there. "Alright" will forever be a live highlight. And bringing Mustard back out for "tv off" was an easy win. This live rendition of "m.A.A.d" city was interesting, spliced up with Anita Baker's "Sweet Love", though I honestly would have preferred it played more like the original. And Kendrick's performance of "Not Like Us" was a total victory lap. Genuinely insane hearing the Toronto crowd go bar for bar with him, emphasizing all the shots at Drake.
