“We got a lot on our minds tonight,” RZA told the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Friday night (July 18), before the rest of Wu-Tang Clan joined him onstage to close out the final scheduled date of their farewell tour.
Since kicking off last month and running through a slew of arenas in North America, Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber has been a smashing success, and the Philly performance demonstrated why: for as many personalities roamed the stage and as sprawling of a catalog they possessed individually and collectively, this iteration of the Wu-Tang experience has been focused, cohesive and celebratory, a group of otherworldly talents locking in for one last ride.
With nary a floor seat unfilled and a stage setup that included a giant tilted screen that appeared to loom over the crowd, Wu-Tang Clan was larger than life in front of an adoring audience. The setlist was a nearly immaculate mix of solo hits and posse cuts (the word “nearly” necessary for the lack of a Ghostface Killah showcase — my kingdom for “Mighty Healthy”!), the guests were world-class (more on them later), and, perhaps most importantly, the crowd embraced every high-energy moment.
Part of the fun of a Wu-Tang Clan show, in any era or setting, is hearing their rhymes rattled back at them; witnessing an arena audience know every word to “Duel of the Iron Mic” or “Clan in Da Front” or “Ice Cream,” roughly 30 years after they were first released, spoke to the power of their catalog, and made for a thrilling evening.
We’ll see how many of them we have left. Although Friday’s show was full of special moments and outpourings of emotion, Wu-Tang Clan did not treat it as their final show ever — and why should they? With a show that mixes iconic songs and modern hip-hop urgency, and every MC in the W sounding sharper than they have in a long time, Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber could, and should, keep rolling for a while. Some farewell tours have a funny way of overstaying their welcome, but Wu-Tang Clan has earned a long goodbye.
Here were the best moments from Wu-Tang Clan’s Philadelphia performance on Friday night:
