“Act like ya’ll know, man. This a holiday,” boasted Frsh Waters, the co-founder of Chicago collective Pivot Gang and the opener of the second annual John Walt Day concert. It’s Thanksgiving weekend and while families are gathered around the dinner table, lovers and supporters of Pivot Gang–comprised of Saba, MFn Melo, Waters, SqueakPIVO and a few more–filled the spaces of the city’s Concord Music Hall to keep up a holiday tradition of their own.
With a newly-grown fro, Waters enters the stage with no introduction, a contrast from initial mic stand-clasping nervousness during the inaugural John Walt Day, launched at House of Blues Chicago in 2017. Walt Jr., the cousin of Saba, was killed last year and is the sole inspiration for the rapper’s John Walt Foundation that brings the arts to children in the city.
The concert is a resounding tradition that his Pivot Gang brothers don’t plan to break anytime soon, with anticipation flooding the city each Thanksgiving weekend and a simultaneous celebration of Walt’s birthday on November 25th. The concert is just a piece of the loving puzzle Saba, Waters and the rest of the group created to keep his legacy alive.
With repeated crouching and soulful backing by Chicago band, The Oh’My’s, Waters regained balance after kneeling on an uneven speaker, referring to the crowd as “Church,” a christening that he echoes on the ending of “GPS” a feature from Saba’s well-received debut album Bucket List Project.
Saba may have dropped the stellar sophomore project, Care For Me this year, but the continuation of John Walt Day means more. Sold out for its second year in a row with 1,400 in attendance, Pivot Gang house-DJ Squeak Pivot blares “Scenario” by A Tribe Called Quest as the crowd multiplies before his booth. Avid fans gather in all creases of Concord Music Hall, especially on the second floor, where a merch stand resides exclusively for John Walt items. A haloed painting of Walt (or DinnerWithJohn as listeners knew him best), sits next to an assortment of buttons and t-shirts, as a guest brings a newly finished painting of Walt to the show.
Between sets, the crowd roared for cuts by Chicagoans Ravyn Lenae and Noname, who’s Room 25 track “Ace” is cut abruptly before MfnMelo takes the stage. With orchestration by Care For Me co-producer Dae Dae and harpist Yomi, Melo flowed through “Can’t Even Do It” and briefly spoke to the crowd about Thanksgiving, inviting attendees with leftover pies to meet him after the show.
Strutting to Ariana Grande’s kiss-off anthem “thank u, next,” The Plastics EP rapper Joseph Chilliams poses freely, cloaked in a light pink teddy bear coat. “I made this song because there aren’t a lot of black people [in Mean Girls]. I realized that the fourth time,” Chilliams joked before performing “Unfriendly Black Hotties.”
Joined by four-year-old Snacks Pivot, John Walt’s mother Nachelle Pugh pinpoints her nephew’s curiosity of joining his older cousins Saba and Joseph Chilliams as their miniature hype-man.
“It’s like Walter jumped into his body and he’s coming back through this kid,” she said of the toddler’s enthusiasm. “He’s studied Saba, he’s studied Joseph, and he’ll say ‘Auntie, can I use your phone?’ So he’d use my phone and watch the boys’ videos on YouTube. Joseph is a person that the kids look at and say ‘He’s so fun,’ and [Snacks] wants to be like him. Everything that they do, [Snacks] is studying them.”
Pugh credits Young Chicago Authors for sparking her son’s musical pursuits, with guidance by poet Kevin Coval. “Kevin mentored him until the day he passed. I really love and respect someone that can just work with kids and give them a place to express themselves creatively,” Pugh said. “Working towards a goal of creating something that I know [Walt] wanted to do, and to help others in the same token, that gives me a sense of accomplishment.”
The stage then transformed into a resting kitchen with illuminating lights on the bottom of side-by-side counters, with Care for Me co-producers Dae Dae and Daoud behind their respective keyboards. Once settled, Saba rushed the stage to perform “Busy,” with a special appearance by singer theMIND. The pulse of the venue throbbed as Saba took brief pauses to talk intimately to the crowd. “I lost a lot of people close to me,” he said. “A song like “Stoney” is such a celebration of life. It’s crazy to think how long ago that sh*t was. John was still alive.”
As Saba diverted into memories of Walt’s life, Nachelle recalled the album listening event for Care For Me. “Saba wouldn’t let me listen to it. He didn’t even tell me that he was working on it until it got really close [to the album’s release],” she said. “Then, he warned me about “Prom/King.” I think he was thinking about letting me listen to it by myself at first, but then he thought about it like ‘Nah, I’m not gonna do that while she’s by herself, let me just let her listen to it while she’s with everybody else.’ That was an easier way to break it to me, so I wouldn’t really break down.”
Saba capered into “Prom/King,” but performing the heart-tugging ode to Walt was a first, even after embarking on his 2018 Care For Me tour.
“I didn’t know he was gonna do that. I didn’t think that he’d ever be able to do that. I don’t think he thought he’d be able to do that,” Pugh explained. “I don’t know if anybody captured the expressions, but I think he was in tears and he was just fighting through it. We went through this fight together on the day we found out what happened with Walt. When he got finished, he sat down, turned around and he looked at me and I’m like ‘We did it.’”
Even with “Prom/King” being the most grief-stricken track on Care For Me, Nachelle revealed that the most poignant song about her son was “Heaven All Around Me,” realizing the message just months after the album’s release. “I was like, ‘Walter wrote that song through Saba,’ she said. “That’s the song that gets me the most off Care For Me. I don’t think [Saba] intentionally did so, but it just put so much power behind “Prom/King” because you see what happened. He told a story.”
The storytelling of Walt’s legacy was fulfilled throughout John Walt Day, from Joseph Chilliams doing a comedic, warbled rendition of “Ordinary People,” Walt’s favorite song to play on the aux cord, to the entire Pivot Gang reuniting to perform their ensemble track “Blood” for the first time. Walt’s presence was unwavering, with remaining Pivot Gang members continuing to carry his eternal flame.
“This year’s show, the passion was a little bit stronger, because at the time we did last year’s show, I think we were all still in denial, like ‘We’re gonna wake up from this dream’ type of thing.’ Pugh said. “I think we accepted the fact that [Walt’s] not coming back. They wanted to go as hard as possible because they were doing this for him.”