Tyler, the Creator

All Points East returns once again to Victoria Park for another week of stellar and diverse acts. Headlining the East Stage this Friday was none other than Tyler, the Creator. Riding the high of his latest chart topping album, ‘DON’T TAP THE GLASS’, the artist performed a spectacular range of tracks, seamlessly blending new material with classic hits from across his career.

Clad in an on brand red suit, Tyler jived across the top of a bus against a brilliantly eccentric recreation of an imagined Victoria Station, immediately setting the theatrical tone for the night.

But Tyler was only one part of a line up that seemed determined to ignore the boundaries of genre. Turnstile brought a completely different intensity, swapping Tyler’s eccentric hip hop for roaring guitars and the restless energy of hardcore.

Their presence made perfect sense alongside him though as both acts have built their identities around experimentation and refusing to be boxed into one sound. Turnstile closed off their electric performance with a powerful rendition of the quintessentially British banger ‘I wanna be adored’.

Elsewhere, Fakemink represented the newer, internet-driven underground, adding yet another dimension to a festival already jumping between rap, punk and alternative music.

When Tyler took control of the East Stage, his elaborate Victoria Station set became his playground as he moved between tracks with an outstanding confidence which has become inseparable from his performances.

Musically, the performance demonstrated just how varied Tyler’s catalogue has become. The frantic energy of his newer material sat alongside songs from earlier eras, allowing the set to constantly shift in tone.

At some points Victoria Park erupted, with the crowd jumping and shouting lyrics back at him; at others, the atmosphere softened as Tyler leaned into the more melodic side of his music. Rather than feeling disjointed, these changes highlighted his ability to move between sounds without losing his identity.

That same variety could be felt across All Points East itself. In the space of one day, you could experience the emerging underground sound of Fakemink, be thrown into the chaos of Turnstile and then watch Tyler command a festival sized crowd from the roof of a bus. On paper, these artists might seem worlds apart, but together they captured a quirky generation of music listeners who care increasingly little about traditional genre labels.

By the end of the set, Tyler had delivered something much more memorable than simply playing through his biggest songs. Between the Victoria Station spectacle and his unpredictable interactions with the crowd along with his unpredictable dance moves the performance felt distinctly tailored to this crowd.

All Points East gave Tyler a stage large enough for his imagination and he took full advantage of it, creating a headline show that was theatrical and unmistakably Tyler.