Review: Donald Glover and 14,000 Tampa fans close the door on Childish Gambino [PHOTOS]

Donald Glover is an actor. He said as much to the New York Times over the summer as he shared plans to walk away from his rap persona, Childish Gambino, to focus on filmmaking and his family.

On Wednesday in Tampa, the man staged one hell of a goodbye.

Arriving on a circular B-stage in a spacesuit, the 40-year-old dove right into the high-energy, glitchy sounds of Bando Stone & the New World, the eponymous soundtrack to his upcoming film. Glover’s followers have long known that the outing is the last in the Childish Gambino discography, and they came out in full force last Wednesday in Tampa and sold-out Amalie Arena.

And while Glover—a five-time Grammy-winner who’s also got Emmys, Golden Globes, BET and VMA awards on the shelf—has described his rap career as unfilling, he regularly showed love to fans for coming out to the Childish Gambino funeral, even telling a story about his first time in Tampa when he tripped over an electrical basket and had to cancel his first tour.

“I had beef with y’all for like 15 years, but then you sold this motherfucker out,” he joked after a low-key run through “III. Urn,” thanking fans for spending their time and hard-earned paychecks to come to a concert on a rainy night. The nearly 14,000 fans—some in Bando cosplay—got their money’s worth.

Taking the stage at 9:15 p.m. after an opening set from Willow's jazz-pop band, Glover crammed nearly 30 songs from his 13-year rap career into an-hour-and-45-minute set that featured plenty from Bando but not a lot from his other 2024 release, Altavista, the finished version of a 2020 outing 3.15.20. They reciprocated the energy by bouncing along to the dubby “Got To Be” and reveling in the ROYGBIV lasers that bounced off Glover who was unafraid to work the catwalk on songs like “Yoshinoya.”

On that track, Glover says he’s “allergic to this rap shit,” and while the line might be commentary on the game in general, it was hard to to think about it in the context of the farewell tour which wraps its U.S. leg next month and heads to Europe and Australia in the spring.

He’s unafraid to tap into his inner James Brown scream (“Redbone”) or dip into breakneck delivery (“3005”) and borderline EBM for the goth-club (“Heartbeat”).

Glover might not fancy himself an emcee anymore, but when he’s rapping about being a family man (“Survive”), bopping through hybrid bedroom and city-pop (“In the Night”), crooning from backstage during the intermission (“No Excuses”) or leading fans through a bombastic, rapid-fire second set of greatest hits (“IV. Sweatpants,” “This Is America,” “Les”), it’s clear that he’s head and shoulders above so many of his contemporaries and possibly right up there with many of the greats.

And While Glover is an actor, onstage he’s more believable as a rapper than artists like Drake, whose desire to impress fans leads to corniness. Glover, in contrast, just looks like a guy who likes to make art. He even waited a full four minutes before coming out for an encore performance of “Lithonia,” where the crowd delivered the biggest sing-along of the night.

“I paid my dues / Love is for fools,” they sang. “'Cause nobody gives a fuck.”

Childish Gambino fans clearly do, however, and it’s clear that they’ll be tuned into whatever Glover does next.

Setlist
H3@Rt$ W3re M3@Nt T0 F7¥
Survive
I. The Worst Guys
Talk My Shit
Got To Be
In The Night
Yoshinoya
Urn
[Unknown]
[Unknown]
Feels Like Summer
Why Go To The Party
A Place Where Love Goes
No Excuses [Intermission]
—
Me and Your Mama
Do Ya Like
This Is America
IV. Sweatpants
Sober
Les
Heartbeat
Bonfire
Freaks and Geeks
III. Telegraph Ave. [audience choice]
V. 3005
Redbone
—
Lithonia