“I guess I’m blessed with being oblivious.”

Recalling his journey into wind instruments, André 3000 held back tears while discussing a deep appreciation for how flutes upended his soul. “Take your time baby,” a fan gently said during the multi-hyphenate’s testimony as the rest of the crowd covered him with a blanket of applause. “I’d never thought I’d be playing fucking flutes,” he said. “For years I would play flutes on the street, babies would stop crying, animals would tit their head while looking at me playing. I just enjoyed the flutes. I was oblivious to what this [could be].”

Stories of breathwork classes in LA spiritual circles and chance encounters with Carlos Niño are just some of the anecdotes Andrè shared Monday evening at the first show of his New Blue Sun Tour. The avengers of ambient music – Niño, Nate Mercereau, Surya Botofasina, and Deantoni Parks, all of whom also worked on the album New Blue Sun — also joined him on stage in what could better be described as performance art than a typical concert.

Seated under a glowing disco ball in the middle of Brooklyn’s Crown Hill Theater (formerly known as the Black Lady Theater), attendees watched 3 Stacks play an array of flutes that seemed to be pulled from a magician’s hat or a secret compartment on stage. Instead, up to 12 flutes including his go-to Mezzo American flute and an ocarina lay on saffron-like cloth, waiting to be presented to the enchanted crowd. 

Just before fans filled into the legendary theater in Crown Heights, they waited patiently in a line that wrapped around Nostrand Ave. His admirers were a reflection on him: fashionable millennials and Gen Xers in Aaliyah band tees, men in layered medallion chains and Gen-Z types in bucket hats. (There were so many bucket hats – my fluffy yellow one included.)

This crowd wasn’t here just to say they saw André play a flute. Many are students of ambient music and spiritual rituals themselves. “I listen to the album every morning, it’s a part of my mediation routine on my Alexa device,” Dayima from Ohio told me. After hearing about the show during her visit to NY, she postponed her flight and got on the waitlist for the show. “It’s one of those albums that you can put on and do anything, as long as you’re not being distracted. Every morning, it centers me so I’m not as bitchy dealing with my coworkers. It elevates your spirit, it hits.” 

Elsewhere in line, lovers of Eric Dolphy, Brian Eno, and Yusef Lateef appreciated André for stepping into new territory, which is reflective of their own lives. Sula and David Johnson grew up listening to Outkast and now play New Blue Sun for their 1-year-old. It also wouldn’t be a classic André story without a chance encounter with the artist. “When I moved to New York, the first week here I happened to meet him in a Duane Reade. He was super nice to me as I fumbled with my phone to get a selfie [laughs],” David said. “I’ve always been a fan since the ’90s, and I feel like I’ve been aging through the musical trends with him, so anything he does, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s gotta be cool.'” 

While some attendees grabbed Modelos and Sade-inspired merch before the performance, others were working on their breath and meditative state, ready to be elevated. 

When Andre hit the stage in his workwear baby fit, there were a few snags, particularly with the mic not capturing the simmering sounds of some of the flutes. An engineer hopped onto the stage to make changes during the first song, “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.” Despite the audio issues early on, people paid close attention to every detail. With the ambient avengers (Andre literally says Niño’s nickname is Thor-Aquaman) using their soft mallets on the drums and swaying their shekeres in the air, not a beat or hum was missed.

By the time the band flowed into “That Night in Hawaii When I Turned into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control … Sh¥t Was Wild,” Andre was on his third flute, hopping from an electric one to his go-to Mezzo American flute, made by friend Guillermo Martinez. It’s the soft brown flute many have spotted him with during his impromptu performances in alleyways in LA and parks in Japan. A delicate harmony flowed as Niño and the other bandmates lowered their tone on the keys and guitar with deep frequency vibrations, gong included. These sounds are very familiar to me as an attendee of sound meditations in ceremonious plant medicine circles. Often low frequency vibrations are used to place you in a deep state of mediation, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system to ensure relaxation. On the other side of consciousness, it can also release unused energy. If you’re delving into mushrooms, it can teleport you to a jungle where you will indeed growl like a panther. 

Throughout the moving art installation, André brought out legendary multi-instrumentalist Laraaji, who played his electric zither and the silimba, a xylophone-like tool that only enhanced the experience. I just knew the Eno fans were getting their life in that moment. It was clear André and the band were playing renditions of what was heard on New Blue Sun but also just performing what came to them naturally. Songs such as “Boba Fett” and “Manifest” were blended into the show effortlessly. 

Audience members were also part of the performance, with Niño instructing us to mimic Andrè’s flute. High-pitched animal noises were heard left and right with some fans in the balcony breaking out their best howls. The serotonin levels were going higher and higher with every chant and with every additional flute André pulled out. We were truly moving on a feeling, in step with André’s mission behind the album.

In another monologue to the crowd, he shared how the album came together and how everyone had to actually learn the songs they decided to record on a whim. “This is some dope shit,” an audience member said after sounds of raindrops closed out “Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy.” Now on his tenth flute, with a Chinese knot tassel at the end, André was home, showing none of the ambivalence he brought to Outkast’s reunion tour a decade ago. He shared yet another monologue, but in a dialect only himself and his late mother would understand. It’s a made-up language, but there’s intent behind it, he said. He never offered a translation, but whatever he said was delivered with conviction, with feeling, and with love. 

As the band closed out the show, Niño told us that this show is one-of-a-kind and will likely never be played like this again. I believe it. As the tour goes on, they will be inspired to bring more wind instruments into the fold. Maybe André will play 20 flutes in two hours. No matter the flow, the feelings will be natural and unpredictable, and his fans will be there to soak it in.

One more gem gifted to the crowd Monday night was André clearing up his statement about being “too old to rap,” giving everyone hope that a lyrical song or project is on the horizon. “You’re never too old to rap,” he said. “I just have to find an interesting way to say what I have to say. When it comes, it will come, so stay tuned.” The statement was simple but I couldn’t help but to think back to that iconic moment at the 1995 Source Awards when he famously announced, “The South got something to say.” Whenever André is ready to make his next statement, via rapping, wind instruments, or otherwise, the world will be listening.