I am advising those of you who did not nab tickets to Childish Gambino‘s sold out shows in Sydney and Melbourne not to panic. You are going to want to, but please do not.
The musician, actor and writer, told fans at his Atlanta show on September 6: “If you’re at this show, then you know this is the last Gambino tour ever.”
Don’t wanna believe it? Someone posted video of Glover’s onstage bants to Reddit.
He went on to urge punters to stop filming and instead “experience this shit” (mmm, delicious irony):
This is not a concert, this is fucking church. If you’re not here to celebrate life, if you’re not here to enjoy your time here, if you’re here to just hear your favourite song, then you should go home right now and do that. I’m here to have an experience with y’all tonight, y’all feel me?
Sounds pretty definitive, huh? Glover’s November Childish Gambino shows in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney are set to be his last – at least under that moniker.
Might be wishful thinking, sure, but it seems reasonably likely that Donny G will return to stages potentially under a different name – he let slip in New York in June last year that his next record, expected later this year, will be his last, saying: “I’ll see you for the last Gambino album.”
Note the deliberate choice of words in each instance, “the last Gambino album“, ” the last Gambino tour“. Statements such as these don’t preclude the possibility of Glover returning under a different name.
In case you too had forgotten that Glover has already hinted at leaving behind the Gambino – but don’t remember why – he explained to The Huffington Post last year:
There’s nothing worse than like a third sequel, like a third movie, and we’re like, ‘Again?’ You know, I like it when something’s good and when it comes back there’s a reason to come back, there’s a reason to do that.
Like I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things and I always had a reason to be punk. Being punk just always felt really good to me and we always looked at Atlanta as a punk show and I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore. As much as ‘Redbone’ is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio.
So maybe he’ll come back, punker than ever? I sure as shit hope so.
At least we have Atlanta.
