Abigail McNatt Photography: Happy Camper Tour

Stage AE. One of the biggest, coolest, and most iconic venues in Pittsburgh, aside from Heinz Field and Consol Energy Center. With an indoor capacity of 2,400 people, as an independent artist, it's pretty cool when you score a gig there. Well, on March 17th, 2016, that is exactly what Brooklyn rapper, Hoodie Allen managed to do. Whilst on his tour, the Happy Camper Tour, Allen made a pit stop (no pun intended) in Pittsburgh to entertain his local fans. And he did not disappoint.

What was cool for me was this was my first real show to shoot at Stage AE, and the lighting was perfect. It was also a super surreal experience, as I had listened to the Brooklyn native, a few times prior to the tour, as I was introduced to him by my boyfriend.

Having gotten to the show around 6, the line outside was wrapped all the way around the building, with fans ranging from teens to young adults, and males to females. In his song "All About It", a collaboration with Ed Sheeran, Allen jokes about the large amount of young girl fans ("Now my fanbase is full of Megan's and Ashley's") he has, so of course there were a ton of them there as well. Once the doors opened, fans rushed in and crammed themselves into the already full general admission area right in front of the stage. Little did they know, their beloved headliner was just around the corner selling his very own merch. Once this was common knowledge, the line to purchase merchandise was crazy, as expected. My friends and I quickly got our merch and a signature from Allen himself, and headed up on the balcony to sit and enjoy the show, before I went down to take the pictures during Allen's set.

The openers for this show were rapper Super Duper Kyle and L.A. producer, DJ, and rapper, GNash, who both put on a very energetic show. They pumped up the crowd in preparation for Hoodie to appear. After the openers's sets, was intermission and stage set-up time.

I then got my camera and settings ready, and made my way down to the stage to shoot my very first show at Stage AE. I made my way through the crowd, guarding my camera with my life, and reached the front of the stage.

Suddenly, the stage became filled with fog and the instrumentals began. Behind all the fog appeared Hoodie Allen himself, and the crowd went wild. He started his set with two songs off his recent album, Happy Camper, beginning with "Intro to Anxiety" and following with "Remind Me Of". Behind me, the audience knew every word, every guitar and bass strum, and every drum beat. Being his humble and grateful self, throughout his entire set, Allen referred to his previous show in Pittsburgh at The Altar Bar and how humbled he was for the fan support then and now. The third and final song I was able to shoot was "No Faith In Brooklyn", throwing it back to his infamous album, All American, where towards the end of the song, he covered a little bit of "Love Yourself" by Justin Bieber, which made the crowd go wild and get even louder, as expected.

After a super humbling and surreal experience in the photo pit, I made my way, quickly, through the crowd and back to my seats to enjoy the rest of the show. Continuing with the trend of making the fans feel nostalgic, Allen followed up with a few more tunes, such as "High Again" from All American and my personal favorite, "Movie" from People Keep Talking. Before adding in some more songs that added to the nostalgia most everyone in the audience was feeling, he interrupted (also no pun intended) with an upbeat, dance tune whose title, "Are You Having Any Fun?", made it seem as though he was checking to see if the crowd was enjoying themselves. Even though it was off of the newest album, Happy Camper, fans knew most every word.

Having attended this show with #HoodieMob members from the very beginning, the next 2 songs on his setlist, made the Hoodie Mob fangirl (and fanboy) like crazy. He went with "Eighteen Cool" and "You Are Not A Robot". Allen then performed, ironically because Pittsburgh is not one, his All American hit, "Small Town", another one of my personal favorites.

He then decided to slow it down a bit with "Two Lips/Casanova" and threw in a cover of "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots, before heading all the way through the crowd rapping every lyric of "Cake Boy". While he performed it, he was carrying a sizable cake, which he threw our direction on the balcony at the end of the song. The rest of the show's setlist included the All American rapper adding in some more songs from the newest album and then a few from older ones. Even though it was getting to be the end of the show, the crowd was just as energetic as it was just a few hours ago and Allen helped to increase their adrenaline with "Act My Age" and single, "Let It All Work Out".

Next up, he slowed down the energy a bit by including two of the slower songs off of Happy Camper, "Surprise Party" and "Champagne and Pools", while half the audience rapped and sang right along with him and the other half struggled to recite the lyrics. He then sped up the pace and threw in one of his biggest hits and collaboration with Ed Sheeran, "All About It" from People Keep Talking, also another of my favorites. He finished off his set with "So Close to Happiness", before heading off stage to prepare for the inevitable encore demanded by the audience. Coming back on stage granting the wishes of most everyone in the room, Allen began his two song encore with a rap-ballad he'd written about the sacrifices his father had made for him when he was a young boy, entitled, "King to Me", a very emotional and touching song (also another of my favorites). He ended his set with probably his most well-known and popular single off of All American, "No Interruption" (another favorite of mine). The entire building burst into song and gave it all they had for the final three and a half minutes of the show.

Having been my first Hoodie Allen show, I was fairly impressed and I would totally go again and again because he puts on a fun, energetic, and amazing show. Very talented artist, let me say. Having been my first shoot at Stage AE, it was crazy surreal and I cannot wait to shoot there again someday.

I highly suggest anyone reading this to check out a Hoodie show whenever you can. This is coming from a girl who isn't a fan of rap or hip-hop music, I was highly impressed with his performances and as far as his sound, it's very likable and catchy.

Check out a few of my favorite shots at the bottom of this post!

You can check out the rest of my shots from this show here!