The Treasure Island Music Festival’s first day back after a yearlong hiatus — this time at Oakland’sMiddle Harbor Shoreline Park —was off to a smooth start, with nearly all of its sets on Saturday, Oct. 13, starting and ending right on time. That is until A$AP Rocky broke the festival’s streak by showing up more than 30 minutes late to the Town Stage.
But the New York rapper, who showed up just before 9 p.m. (he was scheduled for 8:25 p.m.), quickly made it up to them with a performance that lit up the night — literally.
A$AP Rocky, sporting his signature braids and a Marvin the Martian shirt, ran through bangers off his latest album, “Testing,” like “F— Sleep” and “Praise the Lord (Da Shine),” complete with a saxophone player. All the while, jets of smoke and fire shot out at the edge of the stage as he hopped around in front of a giant crash test dummy head.
A$AP Rocky finally on at 8:59, and now I get why it took so long. The set is (literally fire is shooting out)#TIMF#timfsf#TIMF2018pic.twitter.com/HezdVfreBf
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza)October 14, 2018
As if a nod to San Francisco’s hippie roots, A$AP Rocky performed “LSD” atop the dummy head as a psychedelic light show was projected over the entire stage.
He also showed love to the Bay Area by giving a shout-out to Lil B, sampling one of Berkeley rapper’s tracks before cutting it out to clarify that “just so y’all know, BasedGod ain’t coming out.”
“This is a celebration of my man. … I f—in’ love BasedGod, as a matter of fact,” he continued. “If it wasn’t for Lil B a lot of these n— wouldn’t even be birthed or rappin’ or none of this s—. I pay homage to real n— and legends and all that.”
A$AP Rocky wanted to show respect to his fans, too. Several times during the set hestopped midsong to start over — particularly during tracks where he had to do that “singy-songy s—.”
“我没有到旧金山来short-changing these people,” he said. “I love you too much for that.”
Then with three minutes left onstage, A$AP Rocky jumped into “Yamborghini High,” told everyone to get home safe and set off a fireworks show that must’ve had neighbors nearby wondering if the Warriors were playing a home game.
A$AP Rocky ended with fireworks! Nice!#TIMFpic.twitter.com/dgQkNqOoj9
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza)October 14, 2018
“This s— has been electrifying. I love y’alls energy,” he told fans. “Thank you for this love. I really appreciate that.”
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