is what happens when luck and talent meet opportunity.
Maybe you ve seen that proclaims he was working at when he borrowed money from a friend to buy recording equipment. That hustle turned into the break-out hit Don t from his album “T R A P S O U L” and catapulted the Louisville, KY singer into super stardom.
On Wednesday, fans were camping outside of The Ogden Theatre in frigid temperatures for a chance to see Tiller storm the stage with hits from that project. He didn t actually storm, nor did he rage — it was more of a light dusting of smoke, LED lights and crooning. He still needs a lot of performance work but vocally, Bryson Tiller was the real deal and laid the charm on thicker than the cloud of fog surrounding the stage.
As is the norm for live performers in the hip-hop and soul realm these days, he took to the stage alone save for one drummer who was captured in green light. There wasn t a moment more deafening with screams from the crowd than when he took the time to greet the Denver audience. He received loads of adoration and applause as he talked about almost signing with Drake before going into Don t. It s for certain that Tiller has figured out how to gray the lines between singing and rapping as we saw with the live version of Rambo. The teeny-bopper constituency was out in full force and clung to his every word and note. The melodies were beautiful as shown on For However Long, Been That Way, and Overtime.
He sounded like the record, to be sure, and he s got hits that fans know word for word but in the grand scheme, that s the easy part of entertainment. The stage was more smoke and mirrors (literally, smoke) so we didn t get the full picture of Bryson Tiller s performance abilities. He took to the mic stand for several songs but mostly ambled back and forth, focusing on his vocals. There was an impressive solo from his drummer but in terms of performance antics, Bryson let his silky vocals and staccato rap styles do the work for him. The set was complete enough for the star-struck audience, and Tiller returned the love with a shy smile before disappearing backstage.
