Gig review: B.o.B, ABC, Glasgow

By Malcolm Jack
Published on 17/09/2012 03:19

Stage name B.o.B, Atlanta-raised young MC Bobby Ray Simmons Jr’s second album, Strange Clouds, is one of those blockbuster hip-pop sets featuring so many star guest turns – from Morgan Freeman in booming spoken-word form during opener Bombs Away, the first of many voices piped over the PA at this show, to Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj – it’s a wonder there’s any room left for the lead artist.

B.o.B

ABC, Glasgow

* * *

It was reason enough to expect to be confronted with one of the surest new things in rap. But the 23-year-old seemed indecisive at best and uncertain at worst as to how to win and preserve the attentions of even an under-strength crowd.

Leaving the stage to supporting MC Playboy Trey before a bona fide hit had been aired was strange. When a hit came it was at least Simmons’s best: Bruno Mars co-penned UK and US charts-topping breakthrough single Nothin’ on You – a refreshingly classic-sounding cut of romantic R’n’B, enlivened by hip-hop hotty dancers.

The contrastingly soaring Both Of Us saw Swift’s turn to weigh in via pre-recorded backing-track; a few songs later hip-hop bad-boy-for-hire Wayne’s throaty rhymes rang out on subsonic-bass-laced marijuana ode Strange Clouds.

Performing Don’t Let Me Fall unaccompanied on piano was a gutsy move that best signalled Simmons’s undoubted wealth of talent and ambition, but it seemed to lose the audience’s interest. Throwing free shoes to fans before Airplanes, and tearing his shirt off during the encore – cue shrill shrieks – was more typically crowd-pleasing behaviour from an artist of B.o.B’s essentially conformist ilk.