Vince Staples signed CD booklets on his thigh while his band fixed a busted monitor, 90-degree heat baking Pioneer Courthouse Square's brick. A crowd perched atop a metal dumpster outside the gates, watching for free.

The Long Beach rapper closed out the PDX Live summer concert series on Thursday, Aug. 20, performing his punk-infused seventh album Cry Baby in full with a four-piece live band. No DJ. No keyboards. No samples.

It was only the fourth time this ensemble had played together since Cry Baby dropped June 5 on Staples' Section Eight Arthouse imprint. Prior gigs included a debut at LA's legendary punk venue The Smell and a Bonnaroo set. Portland wasn't even a proper tour stop; Staples' North American tour doesn't launch until October.

The 70-minute set also pulled from 2024's Dark Times and included a cover of Geto Boys' "Mind Playing Tricks on Me." In her Aug. 23 Spectrum Culture review, Holly Hazelwood compared the energy to "a Turnstile show, but without the moshing or screaming."

Opener Wynne, who kicked off her shoes between songs, called the square Portland's living room. For one sweltering Thursday, that living room sounded more like a garage.

The PDX Live series wrapped its fifth year at the square (701 SW 6th Ave), having run Aug. 4–20. Staples caught a red-eye back to California after the show to record his Apple Music radio program, 5 on Fridays, that morning.