It’s Friday and there isn’t a home football game tomorrow so many Penn State students are either heading home or driving to New Jersey for the Rutgers game. During non-home game weekends, Thursday nights tend to be a one evening substitution for an entire weekend of shenanigans for PSU students. This mentality was reflected with great fury and pride at the Borgore show last night at Levels.
Borgore has a large enough following that selling out a show at Levels isn’t much of a challenge. When I arrived at the venue several hours after the doors had opened, it was no surprise that there was still a line that stretched passed Jimmy John’s. Luckily, there were two entrances, one for the Happy Meal crowd and one for those of us over 21, so this thankful 22 year old reporter was able to make it in to Levels without any wait. To my surprise, even the opener, which is usually a pretty tame event, had the packed 1st floor crowd fist bumping and jumping for his whole set.
And then Borgore came out.
To me, the man, myth and legend that is Borgore is an exact embodiment of the music that he creates. The dude had Levels employees rushing shots out to him while he DJed. He jumped around, he fist bumped, he hollered at the audience. The man is trap.
The sound system and light show for Borgore were fantastic. The projector behind him juxtaposed images of twerking behinds next to Illuminati symbols, a fitting showing for a man with a discography of songs including “Illuminati” and “Ratchet”. During the first portion of his set, Borgore did a great job of hyping up the audience between songs, but when it became clear that ratchet levels were at max capacity, he didn’t even pause between songs, gliding seamlessly between tracks without breaks. Borgore played all his hits, from “Decisions” to “Wild Out” to “Nympho”, and threw in trap mixes of Queen, “Wiggle”, and Drake.
I don’t even remember how he mixed up that Queen song. It was crazy.
The dance floor on the first level was a force to be reckoned with. Symbolic American flags and Israeli banners waved overhead as both ratchet and civil alike gathered for a three hour fist bumping dance fest. The floor was packed from opener to encore and there was no way you were getting anywhere near the stage unless you were particularly violent in your dance moves or you arrived at 7. Those who survived the longest had chugged a few gallons of water prior to the concert.
How would I sum up the show in one sentence? It was the ratchetest, trapiest show I’ve ever been to and if you missed it, you will forever live your life in constant regret. That sounds about right. It was an amazing time and if I ever get the chance to see Borgore again, I will be in the front row.
Check out his new album #NEWGOREORDER.
Photo Credit: Alex Neal
