It may have been a school night but Bryce Vine was ready to turn up as The Saturday Night Tour drew a sold out crowd to The Van Buren on Sunday. The rapper and singer surveyed the audience with a huge grin and expressed his pure excitement for having sold out the venue two years in a row.
Yoshi T. opened the show to build up the hype for the rest of the night. He’s new on the scene but his lyrics and flow caught the attention of the fans who’d shown up early to catch the full lineup. Amid shouts of “Hi Yoshi!”, the New York rapper sauntered up and down the stage, performing a short but sweet set and winning many hearts in the room. He even mixed in a mashup of covers that included Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” and TLC’s “No Scrubs” before exiting in a shower of applause.
Bryce Vine has long been a favorite and welcome presence in Arizona and Phoenix showed out for this stop of his current tour. He popped up from the back of the stage, startling shrieks of delight from a now completely full room that was ready to party. Ever the dynamic performer, Vine jumped and danced his way through “Guilty Pleasure”, “Baby Girl” and an homage to his small hometown of “Los Angeles”.
The audience followed along, jumping as one mass of bodies and singing along to their own favorites like “Private School” and new single “Saturday Night”. Midway through the set, Vine dropped in his own cover of Smash Mouth’s “All Star” and if people weren’t feeling the energy of the night by that point, they certainly did after a venue-wide sing-along to the classic hit.
Vine was pure charisma onstage and he never wants to be too far from his fans- for Sunday’s show, he leapt onto the barricade to erase any lines between him and his audience and they welcomed him with open arms for “Sunflower Seeds” and “The Fall”. All too soon, the show came to an end with Vine’s biggest songs “La La Land” and “Sour Patch Kids”. Fans of all ages braved the unseasonably cold night after sweating it out at The Van Buren for a night of unforgettable moments.
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Story and photos by Olivia Khiel