Saba is one of Chicago’s best current musical exports. He’s spent most of April and May touring the U.S. and Canada in support of the alternately scalding and beautiful Care for Me, and his late-afternoon Red Stage set on Friday at Pitchfork was his first hometown show of the year. The emotional epicenter of that self-released album, which came out in April, is “Prom/King,” a vivid, even-handed recounting of the 24-year-old rapper’s friendship with his murdered cousin, Walter Long Jr. They didn’t always get along growing up, as Saba acknowledges in the song, but their friendship crystalized after Long offered to find his cousin a prom date. In 2012 they helped found west-side rap collective Pivot Gang, and Long took on the name John Walt for his music. It seemed like everywhere Saba went, Walt was by his side. They weren’t just family who made music together—they’d become best friends.
Saba performed for one of the largest crowds I saw all day, even with clouds threatening rain for most of his set. I’m still not sure how many of those people knew about Walt, but they definitely cared about Saba—they weren’t just there hoping to see Chance come out and do his verse on Care for Me‘s “Logout.” A big festival is far from a perfect way to hear music, and technical difficulties pushed Saba’s set back about 15 minutes, but he didn’t seem bothered by the late start. He nonchalantly circled the stage during his opening song, “Busy/Sirens,” which is also the first track on Care for Me. Saba and his live collaborators—DJ Dam Dam and producer-keyboardists Dae Dae and Daoud—kept the energy comfortably low as they cruised through most of the first half of the new album in order.
