Blue and yellow lights lit SF State’s Annex venue. Anticipated fans cheered in the crowd as T-Pain jumped on stage for the 8th Annual Music Festival hosted by Associated Students Inc. on Saturday night.
The festival started with a DJ outside the Annex and a canopy where guest would get their entrance bracelet. There were people already forming a line to get into the concert, whereas others danced to the DJ’s tracks.
Matching the crowd’s energy as soon as T-Pain got on stage, hysteria filled the auditorium as the R&B singer played throwback songs like “I’m Sprung” — a song about being mesmerized by someone.
The scene was dark with stage lights that glued the audience’s eyes to headliner T-pain and his special guest Caleborate, a hip-hop artist that riled up the crowd more than the opening act, Milk.
Milk is a punk and hard rock band from the City. The difference in genre, compared to T-Pain, confused much of the crowd. Some of the audience members went as far as boo-ing at the band.
Hilary Hebron, an SF State adolescent development major said, “It’s just not my type of music.”
“I don’t like this, I didn’t pay for this,” said student Alenah Brunswick.
Brunswick, majoring in business and finance, wanted the band to get off stage so that T-Pain could perform.
“It hurts my ears, soul, body and spirit,” said Brunswick about the opening act.
Florida native, T-Pain, sang his hit songs from the early 2000’s like “Bartender,” “Buy U a Drank” and “Can’t Believe It.”
T-Pain wore leopard print joggers with a black T-shirt and didn’t forget to leave the auto-tune behind, but only on the background track.
T-Pain has faced criticism throughout media in the past for his auto-tuned music.
In the early 2000s, auto-tune was a trend for musicians, although some took it overboard, perhaps like Britney Spears, T-Pain vocally made it relatable to what it’s like to actually sing out “I’m in love with a stripper.”
T-Pain brought back to life the old school R&B feels to a full house of millennials and made it known that he can still bounce back.
Correction: This article originally stated the T-Pain used auto-tune, but he does not use the sound altering technique live. What was heard by the author was the background track so the article was changed to reflect that.
