Rico Nasty gets St. Louis crowd locked in… & a bit ratchet

Rico Nasty brought one of the more chaotic crowds I’ve seen in a while to Red Flag on August 30th to kick off her RX Tour, which is running concurrently with Rico’s gig opening for Hayley Williams. The night started with a long wait outside; the line moved slowly and, by the time people finally made it through the doors, the crowd was ready to go.

Up first was ERISTHEPLANET, performing to an already packed house. People were screaming, with phones in the air — an amazing sight for an opener.

And once Rico came on, the room got absolutely wild.

There was constant movement on the floor, with mosh pits opening up throughout the set and people pushing toward the stage. It was loud, sweaty, and aggressive, fitting the music perfectly. Rico’s sound has always pulled from punk as much as rap and, live, that mix comes through even harder. The beats were heavy and the whole set had a raw, ratchet feel to it. There wasn’t much downtime between songs, letting the crowd keep up the same energy for most of the night.

What stood out most was how committed the audience was. People knew the songs, shouted the lyrics back, always looking for any excuse to start another pit. Rico didn’t have to do much to get a reaction.

The crowd was already there with her.

Red Flag was a good fit for the show; the smaller room made everything feel more intense, especially once the floor started moving. It wasn’t a subtle show and it wasn’t supposed to be. Rico Nasty came through St. Louis with loud music and a packed room that seemed completely willing to beat itself up for an hour.

Photography by Sean Rider

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