Twins Fans Get "Low" at Season's First Postgame Concert

[Melissa Berman]

A late-arriving, young crowd packed Target Field on Thursday night and danced, sang, and got "Low" at the first postgame concert of the season.

Image courtesy of Melissa Berman

Following the Twins' 8-4 series-opening loss to the Detroit Tigers, hip hop artist and rapper T-Pain performed a full-length, 70-minute concert on the Target Field infield. The show got underway about 25 minutes after the game ended and concluded at 10:21 p.m (in stark contrast to last year's inaugural Target Field postgame concert, where country artist Cole Swindell finished his set at the stroke of midnight). Only a little over a minute after the last pitch, stage crew members sprang into action and wheeled out a pre-assembled stage. 

T-Pain walked onto the field to massive cheers as a countdown-type intro video played on the stadium big screen.

Wearing a custom "T-Pain" #5 jersey in the new home white style, the Florida rapper sang all the hits, like "Up Down," "Cyclone," "Good Life," "Booty Work," "Bartender," and even mixed in "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath- which he sang to end his set. Perhaps the largest cheers of the night came when T-Pain performed his biggest hit, "Buy U a Drank."

 

T-Pain spoke directly to the crowd a few times during the night with a beautiful, smooth speaking voice similar to his singing voice- no autotune needed. Near the beginning of the show, he urged fans to be grateful for all they have and that everyone could be together at the show. 

Fan Sarmed Lafta stuck around with friends for the entire set and enjoyed T-Pain's show. 

"There should be a concert after every game," Lafta said. 

Although the stadium was mostly-empty at first pitch, fans continued to pour into the game throughout the evening, and by the end of the game, the majority of the stadium, outside of some of the 300-level seats, were full. 

After the game, most of the fans who stayed for the show packed into the lower level, where nearly everyone stood on their feet for the whole set. 

The show was free for fans who had a ticket to the game. Fans who bought a special ticket package watched the concert from the infield dirt directly in front of the stage, located in the grass behind second base. Fencing the Target Field Grounds Crew set up kept fans off the infield grass.

The postgame concert brought a couple of changes to the Twins game. Rather than starting at the usual 6:40 p.m., first pitch was at 6:10. Twins Fans could also "Buy [Themselves] a Drank" during the entire game and 30 minutes into the concert rather than being cut off from alcohol sales in the eighth inning like a normal game. 

Even though it was a beautiful summer evening, the post-game show drew in many more young fans who otherwise may have not gone to a weekday battle vs. the typically-lowly Detroit Tigers. The last couple of seasons, the Twins have tried out several ideas to get young fans into the ballpark, including adding Happy Hour games on some Fridays with drink deals, continuing offering the Twins Pass and Student Day deals, and bringing in artists popular with Millennials and Gen-Z for postgame shows.

Shayla is a Twins season ticketholder who stuck around after the game for the concert. She sees the Twins' new tradition of offering postgame shows as a smart way to bring in new fans. 

"It’s a really cool way to get people out to the park that may not have come out on a Thursday night against the Tigers. It’s also an opportunity to grow the fanbase, as I’m sure there are some people that only came out tonight for the concert," said Shayla.

"And T-Pain, or any other artist that performs after a game, may leave here tonight with a few new fans as well."

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Did you stick around for the post-game concert? What did you think of the show/ the Twins' new tradition of hosting post-game concerts? Let us know in a COMMENT below. 

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[Dave Borton]

[Dave Borton]

Went to a Tigers series in Detroit against Jays 5 years ago. They had a concert with Metallica the weekend before. What a mess the field was. Never seen anything like it.

So bad they had to re-sod 1/3 of the outfield when the Tigers left for out of town.

 

[Melissa Berman]

50 minutes ago, davidborton said:

Went to a Tigers series in Detroit against Jays 5 years ago. They had a concert with Metallica the weekend before. What a mess the field was. Never seen anything like it.

So bad they had to re-sod 1/3 of the outfield when the Tigers left for out of town.

 

Woahh, that's REALLY bad for mid-season. The two-day TC summer fest on July 14 and 15 will be the bigger test- this was a small stage and fans were only allowed on the infield dirt, luckily. 

[nicksaviking]

I kind of fell out with new music this century after that awful rap/metal phase was all I heard during my college years. I've heard of T-Pain, but not his catalogue, though I'm sure I'd recognize a song or two if I heard them. But if he's digging up Sabbath and Journey for his sets, the guy sounds like he'd be a fun dude to hang with during our neighborhood garage parties.

[jmlease1]

I think doing a concert series like this is a great use of Target Field and a smart promotion by the Twins. I think it's cool that they're trying a range of options for shows to appeal to different fans, and I hope everyone had a great time.