Childish Gambino played the “silent type” on stage in Australia last night. He got booed during what’s being called a disastrous performance, that wasn’t actually much of a performance, at least for the first half.
Gambino confused, and probably angered, fans when he took the stage and didn’t really speak for 40 minutes, while he reportedly DJ’d from a chair.
Reports The Herald:
IT WAS a night Cambridge Hotel licencee Dru Russell expected to cement his pub’s standing as one of Newcastle’s premier live music venues.
Instead, it is shaping as a logistical nightmare as he and the event’s promoter face a torrent of angry fans demanding refunds after a bizarre show.
Mr Russell said he “didn’t bat an eyelid” when the chance to bring Gambino, also known as Community actor and comedy writer Donald Glover, to town to play an exclusive show as he toured capital cities with the Listen Out festival.
Instead, fans were regaled by relatively unknown group Royalty, which featured the rapper but kept him silent for the first 40 minutes of their roughly 75-minute show.
Speaking to the Herald on Friday, licencee Dru Russell said he and his staff went into Thursday’s show with the same expectations as the paying punters.
“Me and the staff were gutted,” he said. “We were expecting the same as everyone else.”
As the story goes, Gambino was booked as part of an “ensemble DJ” set and performance at the Cambridge Hotel. Apparently he wasn’t aware (or didn’t care) of the latter commitment. The show promoter says DJing wasn’t actually part of Gambino’s contract, meanwhile, fans want refunds.
The hotel isn’t taking responsibility the rapper/actor’s actions: “As seen last night, unfortunately we have no control over the acts performance once on stage,” the venue said in a statement.“For those that aren’t aware, Canberra and ourselves were 2 additional Childish Gambino shows that were promoted in the exact same way as part of his current tour and we were extremely excited to be presented with this opportunity. Subsequently he didn’t deliver on what was billed and expected by everyone, including us.”
There’s probably more to this story, but for now, peep Gambino’s cover of Tamia’s I’m So Into You” below.
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Photo: WENN
