Childish Gambino had one of the craziest and largest crowds at the Honda Stage at Austin City Limits, even though the popular indie band, Foster the People, was playing at the same time. Childish Gambino is a popular rapper, but no one was prepared for the giant crowd that surrounded his stage.

His set involved many visual effects such as fire, sparklers, smoke, and women who just sat in couches on the stage. Many people in the crowd were wondering who these women were and why they were just sitting on stage doing nothing. This caused a lot of chatter throughout the crowd, especially when the camera that connected to the big screens on the side of the stage zoomed in on them. Yet, since Gambino’s energy was so crazy, it distracted the crowd and eventually no one cared about these women.

Gambino held the crowd’s attention from the very beginning when he came on stage with an extreme amount of energy. He tried to get everyone in the crowd engaged by running to each side continuously. He even danced with and pointed at the people in the V.I.P. section of the stage. After about five minutes into the concert, Gambino actually had to take his shirt off because he got so hot from moving around (which caused a lot of screaming from fans).

Gambino was so energized that he left fans trying to figure out if he was hyped up because he was on something or if all this energy naturally came to him when he performed.

One person from the crowd stated, “He was just jumping all over the stage, it was crazy. And his eyes got huge when he was rapping! I honestly thought he was on something, but he’s such an amazing artist, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just naturally that hyped up.”   

Even if he was on something, his concert was amazing. The crowd followed along to his songs by yelling the lyrics or dancing to the beat. Gambino also kept a good job at keeping the crowd pumped up by asking questions and talking.

For example, in the middle of his hit song “Sweatpants,” Gambino stopped the song completely for about five seconds and asked, “Are you still with me, Austin?”  This caused a lot of cheering, which led to more yelling and dancing when the song came back on.

ACL was able to display how popular Gambino actually is and he helped show people how great of a performer and rapper he is. His performance definitely increased his popularity and left people questioning why they had never listened to him before.

Watch Gambino perform Friday on the Honda stage at 6:15 p.m.

Follow Amanda on Twitter @amarkoepolo