Ten years after Coloring Book, Chance the Rapper is back on the road with it. The Los Angeles stop of the Coloring Book 10 Year Anniversary Tour brought him to the Hollywood Palladium on September 20.
The tour was built around revisiting the mixtape that became one of the defining projects of his career. Released in 2016, Coloring Book became the first streaming-only project to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. At the same ceremony, Chance also won Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance for “No Problem.”
But what Coloring Book means goes beyond awards or the way it was released.
Faith, family, gratitude, worship and receiving your blessings run all through it. Ten years later, those themes still seem to be a big part of why people feel so connected to Chance and his music.
La Reezy Opens the Night
New Orleans rapper La Reezy opened the show.
At one point during his set, he told the audience he had only started rapping about four years ago.
That caught my attention.
Four years is not very long when you’re standing on the Hollywood Palladium stage opening for Chance the Rapper.
La Reezy brought his own energy and introduced himself to a crowd that was clearly there for Chance but still willing to listen. Coming from New Orleans also made him an interesting pick to open a night where gospel, soul and musical tradition would play such a big part.
Two Hours at Full Energy
Then Chance came out.
His energy was high right away. From the moment he stepped onstage around 9 p.m. until the show ended close to 11, he kept it there. There wasn’t a point where he slowed down.
What stood out just as much as Chance was the audience.
You could tell the people in that room were 100 percent fans.
They were singing. Dancing. Screaming. Throwing their hands up. They knew when to respond, when to sing and when a song was coming.
It was a pleasure to watch people at a concert actually concert.
At some shows, people seem more concerned with recording everything than with what’s happening in front of them. Phones were out here too, but this crowd was still very much present.
Faith, Worship and a Loyal Crowd
I think a lot of that loyalty comes from what Chance’s music, and Coloring Book especially, means to people.
There is a lot of faith in his music. A lot of worship. A lot about recognizing your blessings, being grateful for them and trying to live your life right.
Chance talked about his relationship with God during the night. At one point he told the audience he found God when he came to Los Angeles.
It made the connection between Chance and the people in that room make more sense. For a lot of them, these songs seem to mean something deeper than just liking the music.
You could hear it in the way they sang.
Some moments felt almost communal. Chance would give something to the audience and they would give it right back.
When the Crowd Became the Choir
One of my favorite moments came when Chance let a woman near the front sing the hook to one of the songs.
She was so good that I stood up, because I thought she was a guest performer.
She wasn’t.
She was a fan.
Then a man and another woman took over, and somehow they were just as good.
Holy cow.
There is so much talent out here, and I love that.
It was one of those moments that made the audience part of the show instead of just the people watching it.
Inside the Hollywood Palladium
The Hollywood Palladium added a lot to the night.
This was my first time really paying attention to the venue as a whole, and it is beautiful. The architecture feels classic. There’s a large standing-room floor with a balcony wrapping around it above.
There’s a lot to look at before the show even starts.
The Palladium opened in 1940 and was designed by architect Gordon B. Kaufmann. Learning that afterward made the shape and details of the room make more sense. There’s history in the building, but it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a concert inside something preserved behind glass.
It still works as a concert venue.
The Best Sound I’ve Heard in a Room So Far
And the sound is something else.
This may be the best sound I’ve heard at a venue so far. Everything was clear and crisp.
There wasn’t a moment during Chance’s performance when I couldn’t understand what he was saying, which is rare for me at concerts.
Part of that is Chance himself. He enunciates clearly, and he seems to know exactly how much space he needs between himself and the mic. That, plus the sound system and the Palladium’s acoustics, made a huge difference.
At some concerts, the vocals disappear under everything else. You recognize the song, but the words get lost once the drums, bass, crowd and room start competing with each other.
That didn’t happen here.
Chance was clear. The music was clear. And the crowd was loud without swallowing what was happening onstage.
Red Light, Fog and a Photographer’s Relief
The lighting was another surprise.
There was a lot of red light and a lot of fog. As a photographer, that combination makes me nervous right away. Red light can take over a photograph, especially when there’s enough haze to catch every beam coming off the stage.
But it was well balanced.
Deep blues, white backlight and enough regular light were mixed in that Chance never disappeared into the red. You could clearly see his face, his expressions and his movement.
It created atmosphere without making him impossible to photograph. Photographers got a real chance at a good frame instead of spending three songs fighting through a solid red wash.
See the full Chance the Rapper Hollywood Palladium photo gallery.
Coloring Book at 10
The same balance carried through the whole performance.
There was a lot happening. Chance was constantly moving. The crowd was moving. People were singing back at him. Some moments centered on faith, some felt like a celebration and some were just fun.
But it never felt disconnected.
His energy from start to finish kept everything moving, and the audience matched him. That was probably what I enjoyed watching most.
Nobody was standing around waiting for the one song they came to hear. The people inside the Hollywood Palladium were invested in all of it.
They were there for Chance.
They were there for Coloring Book.
And some of them were clearly there for what the music represents.
Ten years is enough time for an album’s meaning to change. People who first heard Coloring Book in 2016 have lived ten more years since then.
Relationships changed.
Families grew.
People lost people.
People found people.
Some of them probably received the blessings Chance talks about and questioned others along the way.
That’s what makes revisiting an album like this interesting.
The songs didn’t stay in 2016. The people listening kept living, and judging by that room, they brought the songs with them.
For almost two hours, Chance gave them the same energy they gave him.
People sang at the top of their lungs.
They danced.
They screamed.
They worshipped.
They celebrated.
And they looked happy to be there.
Sometimes that’s enough to explain why an artist still fills a room with loyal fans ten years later.
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