Rapper Nettspend, real name Gunner Shepardson, released his first studio album Early Life Crisis on March 6. He began his tour to support the album on the following month. He performed in Indianapolis at the Old National Center on April 21, and the tour is scheduled to go through late May.

Nettspend did not come to Chicago for this tour, unfortunately, but I was able to travel to Indianapolis to see him. Due to the long distance from my home to Indianapolis, combined with rush hour traffic, I arrived at the venue at about 8:30 p.m., which was 30 minutes after the show was scheduled to start.

Fortunately for me, however, Nettspend was running late as well and did not take the stage until about 9:00 p.m.. The venue was very small and filled to the brim, as the show was completely sold out. The seating was standing room only and the venue held about 500 people.

It was hot and crowded, but nevertheless incredibly fun. There were several small mosh pits happening pretty much all of the time during the concert, and every once in a while, there was one with a large group of people. There were also pillar-like poles that people would climb onto and dive off of into the crowd. I did this once as well, and it was super fun. The staff also took extra care to ensure everyone was safe, even through all of these shenanigans.

As for the setlist, he mostly played Early Life Crisis songs, such as “You Ready?,” “Shades On” and “Masked Up.”  These were thoroughly enjoyable. He played a few songs from his earlier projects as well, such as “Nothing Like Uuu,” “Shine N Peace” and “Stressed.”

The show ended at 10:30 p.m. with the whole crowd moshing to “Stressed.” It was beautiful to see so many people from so many different places and backgrounds bonding and enjoying the same music together. There were kids as young as eight in the crowd and adults as old as 35. There were people from as far away as Kentucky who had ventured five hours to see this show and people who lived just down the block.

Overall, it was an incredible show, and I was very glad that I made the journey. Hopefully Nettspend tours again soon, so that I can relive the awesome, beautiful and amazing experience. I managed to make my way home with the concert still playing on repeat in my head.