Fresh off a new album, Childish Gambino returned to D.C. on August 29, 2024, at the Capital One Arena for the first time in six years with some of his greatest hits in store. Gambino, whose real name is Donald Glover, has been making music since 2008 and has ventured into many different career paths.

Before his rise into music, Glover dabbled in many professions. He started as an actor in the popular NBC sitcom “Community.” From there, he widened his scope into comedy, directing, producing and of course, music. As his career expanded, he continued to make music under the stage name Childish Gambino.

Gambino has stocked his discography with many different genres of music, from his earlier experimental hip-hop/indie mixtapes to his award-winning soulful R&B album “Awaken, My Love!” His newest and final album, “Bando Stone & The New World,” is a culmination of Gambino’s many years of genre experimentation, featuring the most extensive set of songs on any Gambino LP. 

The concert’s crowd was incredibly diverse, spanning a wide range in age, ethnicity and connections to the Gambino music assemblage. 

One fan who represented the spirit of the concert well was a 35-year-old fan, Dedrick. 

“I’ve been a fan since Gambino released ‘Culdesac’ in 2010,” said Dedrick. “He was doing things differently back then and he continues to do things differently now — that’s why I’m still here.”

The concert opened with a 30-minute performance by singer-songwriter Willow Smith, who, admittedly, did not live up to expectations. The audience sat disengaged as she rattled through acoustic versions of her hit songs. Even her most popular tracks, including the renowned “Meet Me At Our Spot,” fell flat due to strange mixings and questionable instrument choices. Although she did not lack passion, Smith fell short of fitting the vibe that most of the Gambino fans were expecting. 

After a short intermission, Childish Gambino went on to steal the show. He chose to open the night with the first song off his most recent album, “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥,” an almost obnoxiously futuristic EDM track. As the song blared, Gambino sat completely still in an LED dystopian astronaut costume as the audience got ready for the show’s start. It became clear when the track got into full swing that the crowd had been waiting for this concert for a long time.

Light descended from the sky in a dizzying, mosaic pattern throughout the concert, changing colors to match the mood of every song he played. The “LIGHT-BINDER,” as he calls the light show, was a demonstration of Gambino’s technological advancements in the music industry. At some points, the elaborate light fixtures even lit up to display the faces of Gambino and the featured singers in some of his songs.

Gambino said in an Instagram post that he was “simultaneously proud and entranced” by the light show. He encouraged other artists to recreate this in their shows and was confident that it would become a “live show staple” as time went on.

Gambino consistently engaged with the audience to the point where it felt more like a conversation than a show. He strategically asked the adoring crowd if they were “real fans” before he incrementally ramped up the mood.  

Throughout the concert, Gambino switched between the main stage and a smaller B-stage on the opposite side of the floor to reach all sides of the arena. While traveling between stages, he forayed into the crowd on the floor and high-fived and fist-bumped hundreds of people. 

Many of the concertgoers had personal connections with Gambino’s discography in one way or another, including 23-year-old fan Jake who said he chose a seat closer to the B-stage so he could be as close to Gambino as possible during his favorite song, “Me and Your Mama”.

“The song holds a ton of sentimental value to me and my girlfriend because it’s the song we had our first kiss to,” said Jake. “When I heard he was performing at Capital One, I knew that we had to show up.”  

The concert’s first half primarily consisted of tracks from his most recent album. While playing songs from the new album was necessary for the tour, it was clear that attending fans weren’t as familiar with the lyrics compared to those of his older songs. While not necessarily a bad thing, the “Bando Stone” songs elicited jumping and yelling rather than large groups of fans passionately reciting lyrics. 

Later, Gambino exclaimed that it was time to “turn up,” welcoming a transition to a successive run of all his biggest hits. The moment where the crowd was the loudest was inarguably during the three-track streak of the biggest hits from his cult-classic 2011 album “Camp.” Even after raving for an hour and a half, the crowd was still ready to rap for “Les,” “Heartbeat” and “Bonfire,” three songs he hadn’t played live for almost a decade. 

The show’s second half felt like a different concert, and its conclusion left attendees satisfied. As the main performance ended, Gambino rolled an 8-bit style credits screen over the “Bando Stone” song “Real Love,” a happy-go-lucky pop track. The combination made it feel like the audience had just completed a retro 1980s video game. 

As Gambino put it, “I have to make something that makes people okay with an ending.” That night, the lucky attendees at Capital One didn’t just witness the powerful conclusion to a concert — they witnessed the powerful conclusion to a legendary career.