Wale's 10 Reasons Why You Should Go See Wale Live

When I found out the other day that Wale would be playing Atlanta soon (with Decatur's own B.O.B., no less!), I got pretty excited. I've made no bones about my Wale fandom in the pages of this publication and its website, assigning news items, explaining why he qualifies as the "Best of What's Next," and touching on my two favorite of his mixtapes in List of the Day posts past. (Incidentally, I'm making a vow while writing this to not cover Wale in another LOTD for a very long time.)

But I've never seen him live. And I got to thinking that he'd probably do a pretty great job of explaining the live Wale experience. After all, he's been to a lot of Wale shows. All of them, in fact. So we exchanged e-mails and here's what he came up with:

10. My shows are like snowflakes; every one is different.
9. My band can kick your band's ass.
8. No, seriously.
7. Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is incorporated into my set.
6. I debut my new songs at shows long before the Internet.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio came to my show in NY and he seems to know what's up.
4. Shows are like games when I played sports in high school; I do all the other stuff just for shows.
3. I got 10 dudes on stage with me, so I guess it's like other hip-hop shows, except they all play instruments and Tre sings.
2. You never know what I'm gonna wear.
1. What have you got to lose?

Wale's upcoming live dates:

March
25 - Miami, Fla. @ WMC
26 - Miami, Fla. @ WMC
27 - Atlanta, Ga. @ The Loft (with B.O.B.)

April
3 - Brunswick, Maine @ Bowdoin College
20 - Bloomington, Ind. @ Jakes (University of Indiana)

May
16 - Northfield, Minn. @ Carlton College

August
13 - Middelalderparken, Oslo @ Oya Festival