Bryson Tiller proves he's Back and Better with sold-out concert at Eagles Ballroom
If you're going to be bold enough to name your tour, "Back and I'm Better," you'd better deliver, especially if you're in Bryson Tiller's position.
The last time the Louisville-born R&B singer and rapper toured was 2017, a banner year that included a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 for his sophomore album "True to Self" and collaborating with Rihanna and DJ Khaled on hit single "Wild Thoughts." He retreated a bit from the spotlight, only for the pandemic to turn the world upside down in 2020, stunting the commercial impact of his third album, "Anniversary," released that October.
So Tiller's tour, which made its fifth stop Thursday at the Rave's Eagles Ballroom, comes with a bit of pressure to reclaim some lost ground — and given the Milwaukee show's sellout, some heightened expectations. And ultimately, this "Back and I'm Better" tour stop lived up to its name, in more ways than one.
Tiller may be back, but working in his favor, the sleek R&B and hip-hop he specializes in never went away.
If anything, past collaborators and tour mates like The Weeknd and Drake, and emerging stars like SZA, have made it an even more central sound in the pop culture landscape. Few pop, hip/hop or R&B songs dating back to 2015 would sound very contemporary today, but Tiller’s breakout track “Don’t” definitely did Thursday, the crowd erupting like it was the biggest new hit of the year, even though many of the babyfaced fans in the crowd likely didn’t hear it eight years back.
Newer songs like “Canceled” or “Inhale” may not have received the same giddy reaction, but they gripped the crowd nevertheless, extending Tiller’s formula for success from “Don’t”: sparse, sleek, often trap-seasoned production; candid often cutting lyrics; cool, engrossing vocal delivery.
"If you came to vibe tonight, we came to perform tonight," Tiller purred early in the evening, and the crowd was content to chill in the ambience. But Tiller found ways to heighten the drama, like when the music and video screens suddenly glitched, an intentionally jarring transition into stinging kiss-off "Sorry Not Sorry," his vocals and demeanor fittingly more agitated as visuals inspired by '90s arcade game "Street Fighter II" flashed across the screen.
It was one of several inspired visuals Tiller's team conjured up for the tour, the impact more dazzling and creative than many arena-scale spectacles. Performing alone on the stage, Tiller was flanked on either side by two retro arcade games whose screens flickered from eight-bit animations to high-tech visuals. Tiller frequently performed strutting across a video screen lined with sharp LED lights, a wall of dozens of screens fluctuating from soft enhancement, like the resemblance of a pink sunset centered behind Tiller during "7:00," to dizzying, blinding spins of the backing screens during DJ Khaled collaboration "Body in Motion," the screens looking like they were getting sucked up into a tornado.
Between these effects and Tiller's stage presence, Tiller definitely has become a better performer compared to earlier in his career, when a sleepy set at Lollapalooza in Chicago in 2016 prompted a large exodus. But he stressed to the crowd he's better in another, arguably more important way, talking a couple times Thursday about the insecurities he felt as an introvert new to the music scene. His conquering of those doubts was manifested Thursday through contagious confidence.
But there was still one way Tiller's Eagles Ballroom show fell short: it clocked in at just an hour. In my mind this wasn't as egregious as, say, Future at Fiserv Forum in March, who has a far larger catalog, plus Tiller was comparatively more engaged Thursday with his stage production.
The packed crowd still filed out of the Eagles Ballroom happy. But a longer show is one area where Tiller can and should do better.
Three takeaways from Bryson Tiller's Milwaukee concert
Beyond the staging, Tiller's get-up had some nice retro touches, including a Nintendo 64 baseball hat, a Nintendo Power Glove, and light-up sneakers inspired by the self-lacing shoes from "Back To The Future Part II." That sci-fi film series inspired some other visuals Thursday, including newspaper headlines from the movies that appeared briefly on the screens.
Beyond occasionally dipping into the pit to get close to the crowd and shouting out fans who had lined up for hours for the show, Tiller singled out one woman in the front toward the end of his DJ Khaled collaboration "Body in Motion," repeating Khaled's compliments in the track ("You're incredible, you're beautiful, you're phenomenal, you're amazing, most importantly you're a queen") and directing them to her.
With Tiller only on stage for an hour, his opener DJ Nitrate was ultimately on stage longer than anyone else that night, but the crowd never tired of his 65-minute set, which leaned heavy on R&B hits like Beyonce's "Drunk in Love" and a medley of SZA songs, including "Kill Bill" and "Nobody," most of them prompting widespread belting from the teens and twentysomething women who dominated the crowd. There was also a sudden push to the stage, phones out by many, when Tiller made a cameo.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bryson Tiller delivers short but energetic concert at Milwaukee's Rave
