On Aug. 28 at the Gallogly Recreation and Wellness Center, UCCS students rung in the new semester with this year’s Fall Concert, a night with rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
Flame got the crowd excited for the school year with his engaging set, including his hit song “No Hands,” a paramount party playlist pick and distant high school dance turn-up song.
Students could reserve free tickets and invite one non-student to attend with them for $7. The event was sold out to its 1,250-person capacity. At 7:15 p.m., they flooded through the southwest doors.
The north and south sides of Court C and D were lined with seating, but most students opted to enjoy the concert in the standing space as close to the stage as they could be. Concert-goers were a diverse group of mostly college-aged adults. Private security, campus police, EMTs and Wellness Center representatives were all on site in case of emergency.
A DJ opened at 8 p.m., warming up the crowd with a 40-minute set. Flame then took to the stage — set on the east side of Courts C and D — around 9:00 p.m., opening with “No Hands.” He entered from the south side of Court D, taking the stage just in time to rap his first verse of the song.
Flame, who hasn’t released a new album since 2019, chose to perform a variety of popular music, rather than a set of only his songs. The crowd jumped along as he performed DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What,” followed by XXXTentacion’s “Look At Me!”
About 10 minutes into his performance, Flocka jumped off the stage and climbed onto the railing separating the stage and the audience. He grabbed fans’ phones to take pictures and videos with the crowd while he performed. At one point, he picked up a concert-goer’s toddler high enough for the entire audience to see the smile on the young boy’s face.
Later in the show, Flame exited the stage area and joined the crowd. Students and their friends screamed in excitement as they saw the rapper enter the masses to mosh with them. The star made his way to every corner of the crowd, singing, dancing and taking selfies with fans as Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Sexyy Red’s “Get It Sexyy” and Kanye West’s “Don’t Like” played over the speakers.
Once he returned to stage, Flame said, “I love to see y’all party,” adding that his favorite part of performing is getting to turn up with fans. As the night raged on, he set the crowd cheering when he asked students, “Are y’all ready for this school year?”
While Lil Uzi Vert’s “Money Longer” played, Flocka invited some fans to join him on stage. Five male students came onto the stage and sang along to Flocka’s “Rooster in my Rari.”
Then, Flame paused the show to give some ladies in the crowd the opportunity to join him on stage. Roughly 10 women added to the group, dancing to GloRilla’s “TGIF.” Flocka passed the microphone to junior visual arts major Orion Tong to sing “U My Everything” by Sexyy Red.
Tong said she “melted on stage” in the heat of the lights, but when she heard it was time to sing her favorite song, her “dancer instincts kicked in,” and she “assumed her role” with the microphone. The surrounding students on stage and the rest of the crowd sang and danced along, cheering at her confidence.
Flame closed the show by running back “No Hands,” now that he had his “people with [him].” The high-energy audience partied with Flocka as the evening ended.
Before leaving the stage, the rapper asked fans to put up their cell phone lights and join him in a sentimental send-off. Flocka wished students a good night, thanked them for the fun and instructed fans to get home safely. Before exiting Court D, he stopped for a couple more pictures and autographs with fans.
Waka Flocka Flame performs at UCCS. Photo by Josiah Dolan.