There is a particular ache to nostalgia — a wish to be present in moments that belong to somebody else’s past. Your favorite concert memories, and seeing up-and-coming performers hungry for success, are inevitably and bittersweetly lost in time, and live on only in memory. On October 10th, 2025, in the backroom of Cat’s Cradle, coheadliners smokedope2016 and Nokia Angel—supported by DJs Lil Fitted Cap and Bartesian Water—assembled an evening that let its audience step into that nostalgia, while also creating new memories, that may ironically be ached for again one day. To me, their show blended fashion and music production choices across many generations of underground music, cultivating a beautiful feeling of longing for the past while living in the present. For that reason, the show felt less like a typical viewing experience, but like a step into a collective past I was too young to be a part of while simultaneously a step forward into a concert that people will wish they were at for years to come.
I arrived at the show thirty minutes early and found a room evidently sold out and excited, packed with teenagers and young adults. Funnily, I worried the Cat's Cradle staff would run out of ink to mark those under the age of twenty-one. Despite the stereotypes of Gen-Z being an antisocial generation, I had almost the opposite experience at this venue and found overlapping pockets of fans all eager to share their love for the upcoming show with me and other fans alike. The audience was an online crowd bubbling with mostly scene kids and other adjacent communities such as cemetery fans.
(Lil Fitted Cap on stage with fans)
Bartesian Water opened the night with a DJ set that revealed an uncanny finger on the pulse for exactly what the room wanted to hear. Their DJ transitions were not flawless, often being hard cuts from one track to the next, but that hardly mattered; their selections were peak. By weaving internet hit tracks throughout the decades like Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like,” Bladee’s “Be Nice 2 Me,” and Nettspend’s “Skipping Class,” the DJ created a seamless mood that warmed the crowd and sharpened anticipation for the acts to follow.
(Nokia Angel)
Nokia Angel, coheadliner of the tour, took the stage immediately after the duo's set, starting with an extended version of his contemporary remix of “Habits (Stay High)” by Tove Lo, metaphorically placing the set into a weird, timeless place. Now, the music itself is both new and old, a striking connection creating a striking atmosphere with the hazy blue lighting present in the venue. The lyricism on this initial track was potent and emblematic of the rest of his set: a clouded melancholic song about destructive coping mechanisms and the difficulty of functioning in the world we live in. This track added to the timeless feeling of the show. He was an artist wearing distinctly 2000s clothing with a 2010s sample with distinctly modern 2020s drum loops. For me, the Nokia Angel set was the highlight of the night, and I expect him to blow up as he improves more as a performer.
smokedope2016—also known as Mr. Rhino Pill—took the energy up another notch. He moved through the audience, dapping up many fans and feeding off of the crowd’s response, which made the small venue feel expansive like a show at The Ritz. His lyricism was soaked with layers of irony, but a sense of genuineness is still captured through his oddly perfect emotional delivery not super common within this genre of music. The bar, “Adderall since third grade, why mama do that to me?”, off his track “Eastbay” stuck with me the most, as the person next to me in the pit screamed the lyrics with smokedope, tearing up. While the set didn't have that same impact on me, songs like “Frat” and “Taipei / Waterbed” were super fun and reminded me of early Chief Keef, and I was happy to live one of my middle school fantasies vicariously.
(smokedope2016)
The show ended victoriously, with smokedope and his posse inviting the crowd onto the stage, where everyone danced together to “In Da Party”– honestly, I couldn't see the concert ending any other way. When the lights came up, it was clear I had seen something important. Not because every element was perfect— honestly, far from it— but because everything from the song choices, crowd, and performance conspired to make the show feel like the start of something far bigger. Even during the show, ticket prices were reselling for up to $200 online, suggesting the rapid growth of the performers since announcing the tour. I'm glad I had the privilege to attend this event and think more people will be wishing they were there in the years to come.
**Setlist: **
Bartesian Water / Lil Fitted Cap DJ Mix
Nokia Angel: Stay Cold, Roll the Dice, All Your Faces, Raindrops, Pass Out, A Night Again, Make A Wish, Fade away
smokedope2016: 2006, Bando, Frat, Foamposite Interlude, Icey Soles, Know Dat, Damian Lillard, Khalifa, White Owls, Back2Back, Taipei / Waterbed, Goyard, Gnarly, Eastbay, 2016Lyfe, I'll Go anywhere that you, Sleep, All Mine, In Da Party
