Drug-Induced Stupors and Childish Gambino: A Bonnaroo 2011 Diary (Day Two)

Waste Cases, 11:44 p.m.
I came close to stepping on this kid on my way into the Childish Gambino show. There were a few others like him, sitting cross-legged in the dirt, heads in hands, rocking slightly back and forth, looking like they wanted to shoot themselves in the face. Thursday’s shows had only kicked off a few hours prior, so I was a little surprised to stumble upon partiers who’d outdone themselves so early in the game. Don’t get me wrong, I was expecting plenty of this, just not quite so soon. This kid’s weekend is looking pretty bleak.

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Childish Gambino at This Tent, 11:59 p.m.
After having a chance to sit down and chat with Donald Glover a few hours before his show, it was really exciting to see the renaissance man take the stage as his alter-ego, Childish Gambino, and completely kill it. The tent was flooded with fans, some of who went as far as to flip over the nearest garbage cans and jump on top of them to try and get a slightly better view. There were also those who attempted to crowd surf their way to the front, but none made it very far; the Gambino fans beneath them were less than enthusiastic about supporting the weight of various 200+ lbs. bros trying to air-cut them. And there were quite a few. In fact, a pretty impressive portion of the rapper-actor-comedian’s cheering fans seemed to be the sort of guys he might’ve had his way with in his 2006 viral hit, “Bro Rape.”

Almost as entertaining as Gambino’s fanship was the overwhelming number of dudes who seemed to know all the words to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” During a brief interlude, a screen behind the artist invited fans to clap and sing along to John Legend’s cover of the hit. The voices crying out in response were almost all male. Not that they didn’t know every last word to each of the performer’s other hits, because they certainly did. It became evident right away when viewers weren’t familiar with Glover’s music—they were the ones you’d notice flinching when he’d rap some of his less-PC lines with abandon. However, once they got over the initial shock, they too gave into the rapper’s charms. The guy is undeniably likable.