The Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in Tinley Park hosted a string of concerts during the summer. I had the opportunity of attending one of the concerts on Friday, August 14th. There show consisted of many artists including Teyana Taylor, Fetty Wap, Omarion, and Kid Ink. The main event of the show was a performance by Chris Brown.

The artists before Chris Brown served the role as opening acts. Although I missed the performances of Teyana Taylor and Fetty Wap, the crowd’s enthusiasm from the outside of the theater left the impression of an exciting performance. I arrived at the arena just as Omarion took the stage for his performance. He first performed hits from the early 2000s, when he was at the start his career: a member of R&B group B2K. He then performed hits from the beginning of his solo career to his recent hits. The performance was very enjoyable, and the crowd was very active during his performance, singing along with him and cheering for him. The next act up was the rapper Kid Ink. The crowd seemed to enjoy his performance; however, I didn’t as much as them because I’m not really familiar with his music, and I was more anxious for the main event to begin.

Once the main event began, the electricity in the crowd could be felt. The first cords of the first song began to play causing the crowd to stand up in its entirety. Chris Brown began his performance, and the noise level in the arena skyrocketed. He performed a majority of his hits from throughout his career and also did renditions of collaborations he was involved in. He even brought out a special guest, the rapper French Montana, who performed a few songs without Chris and a new song with Chris. Chris had enough stamina to put on a great performance and also did an efficient job in getting the crowd involved and excited, making for a riveting show.

The concert, however, wasn’t all positive. Many concert-goers were smoking and standing on their seats instead of on the ground, having no regard to the feelings of the people around them. People were exposed to smoke and had their view blocked. Some concert-goers paid no regard to the fact that seats were assigned according to ticket and decided to sit in the seats of other people or standing directly in the middle of the aisles, causing traffic and making it more difficult for people to get to their seat and enjoy the show. The employees working at the theater could have done a much better job at crowd control and enforcing the rules and regulations.

During the concert, the weather took a drastic turn, and it started pouring down rain making the process of exiting the show much more difficult. The handling of exiting by the employees and the directing of drivers out of the parking lot was poorly executed. It was all a hassle which put a damper on the experience.

The experience overall was positive in spite of some negative aspects, and I would certainly return to the theater in the future to attend events that may take place there.