Concerts Reviews
Everyday’s A Friday When Ice Cube Performs In Vancouver
It’s not every day Vancouver gets a visit from rap royalty, but when Ice Cube rolls through, the city shows up in full force. The Pacific Coliseum was packed with fans of all ages, ready to celebrate Cube’s Four Decades of Attitude Tour. Over the course of the night, Ice Cube delivered a massive 34-track set that spanned his legendary career. If you could name a song, there was a good chance you heard it live. Each moment felt bigger than the last, with surprise after surprise keeping the crowd on its toes. By the final track, it was clear this was one of Vancouver’s standout shows of the year.
From Cripwalking to downing drinks, Ice Cube’s DJ had the crowd fired up, blasting a mix of old and new rap classics that shook the Pacific Coliseum. One glance around the room told you this was going to be a wild night. A line of police officers and firemen stood ready on the floor, prepared for whatever chaos might erupt once Cube hit the stage. As the DJ wrapped up, the crowd’s energy shifted. Fans began chanting “ICE CUBE,” their voices growing louder and more intense with each round. The sound of thousands calling for the legend sent chills through the venue. Then, the lights were cut out. In an instant, chants turned into deafening screams. After months of anticipation, the moment had arrived, Ice Cube was about to take Vancouver by storm.
The show began with a powerful montage projected across the massive video screen, tracing Ice Cube’s journey from his early struggles to his inspirations, culminating in the historic rise of N.W.A. As the final image faded, Cube stormed onto the stage, his presence commanding the room. From his style to his energy, everything about him screamed icon. The crowd erupted, cheering, applauding, and shouting, “That’s my boy, Cube!” like they were welcoming a close friend. Wasting no time, he launched into the explosive opener, “Fuck tha Police.” With a visible line of police officers in the venue, the song carried an extra charge. The audience roared the lyrics, some even directing them straight at the officers, setting the tone for a night fueled by unfiltered energy. Cube kept the N.W.A. vibe rolling with “Dopeman” and “Boyz-N-The-Hood.” During the latter, the energy shifted to a more emotional moment as he paid tribute to the late, great Eazy-E. In a move that stunned the crowd, Cube brought out Lil Eazy-E to perform alongside him. The arena went wild, jaws dropping at the sight. By the end of the song, Cube and Lil E embraced centre stage, a touching tribute that felt like family honouring family.
“Straight Outta Compton” closed out the N.W.A. portion of the night with a bang, wrapping up an opening run so electrifying it’s hard to fully capture without witnessing it yourself. After the track, Cube stepped offstage, and the screens lit up once more, this time taking fans through his journey into the 90s as he launched his solo career. The crowd lit up with smiles and nods, many reliving memories from the era as Cube’s story unfolded before them. When he returned, the arena erupted. Cube unleashed a string of classics, including “Once Upon a Time in the Projects,” “No Vaseline,” and “Check Yo’ Self”. As we reached 1994, Cube talked about how Eazy-E’s loos created sadness, and previous years were too wild. So he decided to write a film, Friday. The introduction led him to the performance of the track which triggered the brains of every audience member to dance. He included a small vignette dedicated to his friend, mentor, the late great John Singleton, who directed the hit film Boyz-N-The-Hood. It was a touching and honourable tribute.
Following, each track sending waves of nostalgia and hype through the crowd. Then came another twist. Cube began talking about his time with a certain “little supergroup” known as Westside Connection. The moment he dropped into “Bow Down,” the energy hit a fever pitch as Dub-C stormed the stage, igniting a frenzy that had the entire venue on its feet. Dub and Ice tore through a relentless run of hits, firing off “Gangsta Nation,” “Natural Born Killaz,” and the hard-hitting “The Gangsta, The Killa and The Dope Dealer,” which famously samples Nine Inch Nails. For 11 straight tracks, Dub held it down alongside Cube, and the crowd matched their energy every step of the way. Whether it was the sheer power of the music or the haze of smoke filling the arena, fans seemed to be on another level entirely. People were dancing like nobody was watching, rapping every lyric to songs they’d grown up with. The high point came with “Ain’t Got No Haters,” after which Cube left the stage, leaving the crowd wondering if the night was over. Vancouver wasn’t having it. Thousands of voices rose in unison, chanting “IT WAS A GOOD DAY!” until the walls practically shook. Moments later, Cube returned with a smile, ready to give the city the encore it had been demanding.
Ice Cube paused to share his love for Vancouver, praising the city, its people, and the electric energy of the crowd. That heartfelt moment led perfectly into the words everyone was waiting for: “It Was A Good Day.” The reaction was instant and explosive. The arena erupted as fans shouted every lyric, turning the track into a full-blown celebration. It was a moment of pure connection, with thousands of voices and memories colliding into one unforgettable experience. To close out the night, Cube shifted gears and performed “It’s My Ego,” a standout from last year’s Man Down album. Even though it was a newer track, the crowd embraced it like a classic, rapping along with the same passion they had for his legendary cuts. It was the perfect high note to end a night that proved Ice Cube’s legacy is as powerful as ever.
As Ice Cube’s night in Vancouver came to a close, thousands of fans poured out of the Pacific Coliseum, many treating the experience like a massive Saturday night family gathering. Conversations buzzed with excitement, and more than a few voices declared it one of the “greatest rap shows ever”. Honestly, it’s hard to disagree. I’ve been to more concerts than I can count, and this one stands near the very top. The energy was unmatched, the setlist packed with career-defining tracks, and the performance so powerful that at times. I wondered if we were witnessing a celebration of Cube’s legacy or a farewell. The production was just as impressive, featuring a rising stage and an upper platform decked out with two green Impala convertibles straight out of the “It Was A Good Day” music video. It was a visual nod to a career that has shaped both music and film, with Cube continuously finding ways to bring people together. For decades, fans have said things like, “We gotta listen to the new Cube,” or “Cube’s got a new movie out,” and that same excitement radiated through this show. If Ice Cube visits your city, all I can say is “You gotta check out Cube live”.
I’d like to thank Ice Cube and his incredible team for allowing us to capture and experience his Four Decades of Attitude Tour. If you’d like to find a future date, or more on the artist, please visit here: Ice Cube Website
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
ICE CUBE
All Photo Credit: Marquise Monno
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Lily Allen Leaves the Hits Behind for a Theatrical ‘West End Girl’ in Vancouver
There was something almost cheeky about Lily Allen making a venue full of people wait for the songs they came to hear, then giving them exactly what she promised instead.
Before Allen appeared at the Orpheum Theatre on September 28, 4 members of the Dallas Minor Sextet took the stage with cello arrangements of some of her biggest songs. “Smile,” “The Fear,” “LDN” and “Fuck You” became an elaborate karaoke session, with the lyrics projected onto screens while the audience did the singing. It could have felt like a strange substitute for an opening act, but instead, Vancouver embraced it. By the time “Fuck You” rolled around, the arena was doing a very good impression of several thousand people at a Lily Allen pub night.
Shortly before 9pm, the stage shifted into something altogether different. Allen appeared behind the curtains and launched into “West End Girl,” the title track from her 2025 album. From there, the evening stopped behaving like a conventional concert.
That distinction matters. Allen is not here to run through the hits, tell a few stories between songs and send everyone home with “Smile” stuck in their heads. The West End Girl tour has been built as a one-woman theatrical production, and the album is performed from beginning to end, in order. There is no live band and no parade of backup dancers. The focus is Allen, the story and an increasingly bizarre apartment set that seems to mutate with every song.
Allen has spent two decades turning blunt observations, bad decisions, sex, relationships and personal disasters into pop songs. West End Girl takes that instinct and strips away most of the distance. The album was already brutally personal. Seeing Allen physically inhabit it makes some of its moments considerably harder to escape.
The stage becomes her apartment, bedroom and emotional crime scene. A swing appears, chandeliers descend, and costumes change. At one point, Allen emerges with a receipt incorporated into her outfit, turning the evidence of betrayal into a ridiculous and oddly effective piece of stage design. A bag filled with decidedly NSFW contents gets its own moment. None of it feels particularly subtle, but subtlety would be a strange request to make of Lily Allen.
The strongest moments come when the production gets out of the way and Allen lets the ugliness of the story sit there. “Relapse” is devastating. Allen moves through the space with the exhaustion of someone trying to outrun her own thoughts before eventually breaking down in tears. There is no need for a speech afterward. The song has already said enough.
The phone call in “West End Girl” is another standout. Allen performs only her side of the conversation, but the missing voice is easy enough to fill in. The audience does, loudly. It is one of those moments where the fourth wall works in her favour. Allen doesn’t need to explain the story because we are already inside it.
That commitment to the album is what makes the show compelling. There are no “Not Fair,” “The Fear” or “Smile” performances from Allen herself. The old songs belong to the Dallas Minor Sextet, and that is a deliberate choice. Some fans will inevitably wish Allen had thrown one or two classics into the main set. I get it. If you’re standing at the Orpheum Theatre waiting to see Lily Allen, watching someone else perform “Fuck You” on cello is a pretty unusual way to get your money’s worth.
But once the main show begins, the absence of those songs makes sense. West End Girl is being treated as one complete piece, rather than a collection of tracks that happen to share an album cover.
Allen closes the album with the same theatrical control she maintained throughout the night. For “Fruityloop,” chandeliers come down around her, the stage returns to the world established at the beginning and the West End Girl sign comes back into view. It feels like the final scene of a play.
That’s probably the best way to judge this show. If you came expecting Lily Allen to perform her greatest hits, you might leave wondering where the concert went. If you accepted that West End Girl was the concert, the night made considerably more sense.
Lily Allen brought a play with a pop album attached to it. For 60 minutes, she made the Orpheum Theatre feel like her apartment, and I loved it.
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Let Your Freak Flag Fly: DEVO and The B-52s Bring the Weird to Rogers Arena
If there was ever a concert where you could show up wearing a red energy dome, a giant lobster costume, or something covered in sequins and somehow feel underdressed, it was Sunday night at Rogers Arena. DEVO and The B-52s brought their Cosmic De-Evolution Tour to Vancouver on September 27, turning the arena into a colourful, wonderfully weird collision of new wave, dance music, retro-futurism and pure camp. It was less like watching two bands from another era and more like being dropped into a very strange party that somehow never stopped being cool.
DEVO kicked things off with their signature visual style firmly intact. The yellow jumpsuits and unmistakable red energy dome hats made an appearance, along with a seriously impressive light show that turned the stage into a constantly shifting wall of colour and movement. There was a lot to look at, and the band clearly understood that half the fun of DEVO is the spectacle. At one point, they took things a step further by throwing red energy domes from the stage into the crowd, sending fans scrambling to catch one of their own. “Uncontrollable Urge” had the arena bouncing, while “Whip It” brought one of the biggest reactions of the night. Watching thousands of people lose themselves to a song that has been living in the cultural bloodstream for decades was pretty great.
Then came The B-52s, and suddenly Rogers Arena felt less like a hockey arena and more like the world’s biggest dance floor. Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson brought the kind of energy that makes it impossible to simply sit and watch. “Planet Claire,” “Roam,” “Private Idaho” and “Love Shack” had the crowd singing and dancing along, but naturally, everyone knew what was coming. “Rock Lobster.” And yes, there was an actual lobster on stage. The giant crustacean made its appearance as the band tore into their gloriously bizarre classic, perfectly summing up what makes The B-52s so much fun. They have never seemed particularly interested in being normal, and thankfully, they still aren’t.
Their fans are just as committed. There was a definite cult-like devotion in the room, with plenty of retro outfits, dancing, big hair, wild accessories and people who clearly knew every single word. The crowd ranged from longtime fans who have been following the bands for decades to younger concertgoers discovering the music for themselves. That might be the most fun part of the Cosmic De-Evolution Tour. These songs have somehow escaped their original era. They still work. They still make people dance. And the bands themselves seem perfectly happy to keep letting their freak flags fly.
DEVO and The B-52s may have been formed nearly half a century ago, but there was nothing particularly nostalgic about the night. This wasn’t a museum piece or simply a trip down memory lane. It was loud, colourful, ridiculous and incredibly fun. With DEVO‘s futuristic visuals, flying energy domes and The B-52s‘ wonderfully unhinged stage presence, Rogers Arena got a little weirder on Sunday night, and Vancouver was better for it.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
DEVO
THE B-52s
All Photo Credit: Heather Horncastle