It was big, bold and, in moments, quite beautiful.
So why did it feel like it should’ve been even better?
Kendrick Lamar and SZA came into Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thursday (May 29) with nothing short of the top concert tour of 2025, surpassing — in terms of overall buzz, demand and fan excitement level — even what Lady Gaga and Beyonce are peddling this year. (Plus, Queen Bey gets points taken away for not having any Bay Area dates on the itinerary.)
Both acts are scalding hot right now — especially Lamar, who’s coming off a Grammy sweep, a hit Super Bowl Halftime Show, the defining album of 2024 (“GNX”) and general acknowledgment that he’s the No. 1 player in all of hip-hop. For her part, SZA is still riding high on the success of 2022’s “SOS” — which recently returned to the top of the charts in the form of the reissue “SOS Deluxe: Lana” — and the current smash single “Luther” with Lamar.
So, no wonder that Bay Area fans were so eager to snatch up tickets to see the two first-tier superstars on the same bill.
Yet, the show itself — while greatly enjoyable in moments — was flawed in its construction, where the two artists mixed and matched their music in one jumbo-sized set. The production consisted of nine different acts, performed over the course of a little more than 2½ hours, which translated to a whole lot of starts-and-stops and a general feeling of disjointedness.
SZA performs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on May 29, 2025 (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).
It absolutely didn’t help matters that the two artists’ vibes, musical styles and visual content were so dissimilar. It was like watching two vastly different films spliced together on the same screen — when a better option would’ve just been to have a traditional double feature.
And the same can be said of the Grand National Tour, which likely would’ve have been more enjoyable had the artists decided to go with the regular individual sets approach — an opener, then a closer, with time for collaborations during both sets — as opposed to this high-concept multi-act production.
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Taking the stage at around 8:20 p.m., after a DJ set from longtime collaborator Mustard, Lamar kicked off the main event in powerful fashion with “Wacced Out Murals” and “Squabble Up” — which is the same way that “GNX” begins. A few minutes later, he’d hand over the spotlight to SZA, who’d unleash her dreamy, magnetic vocals on “What Do I Do” and “Love Galore.”
The whole process would then repeat, again and again, with Lamar and SZA switching places on stage over the course of a mammoth set that included (at least portions of) 50-plus songs.
The result was a kind of musical whiplash, as we continually bounced back and forth from Lamar’s hard-hitting hip-hop to SZA’s ethereal R&B. More troubling was that the motion completely sabotaged either artist’s ability to create any sort of real momentum or continuity during the show.
Heightening the sense of disjointedness was the very different visuals on display.
Lamar’s production was city slick and mostly streamlined, almost industrial in tone, allowing a tight focus on the lyrics as the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper continued through “Humble,” “Alight” and — the real showstopper of his performances — a dramatic take on “Man at the Garden.”
SZA played in a fantasy garden land of two-story-tall praying mantises, riding a giant ant and boogeying with critters in a forest motif that felt like it came straight out of Bjork’s tour archives. The special effects were mostly unnecessary and usually quite distracting, getting in the way of our ability to zero in on that gorgeous voice of hers as she continued through “Kitchen,” “Low” and others.
SZA performs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on May 29, 2025 (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).
Sure, fans loved seeing the two stars share the stage for a goodly number of songs. Yet, the chemistry that these two share in the studio — which has resulted in a number of big hits — mostly didn’t translate on the oversized stage that dominated most of the outfield at Oracle Park.
Of course, it was hard for the two stars to exhibit much chemistry when they were physically situated so far apart — with SZA playing left field and Kendrick in right — during one long stretch of their together time. But the vibe didn’t change much when they’d meet in the middle — at least not until the end of the show, when they combined voices for rather subdued takes on “Luther” and “Gloria.”
Yet, even that closing portion left plenty to be desired, since the low-key ending felt pretty anticlimactic compared to the razzle-dazzle from earlier in the evening.
Kendrick Lamar performs at Oracle Arena in San Francisco on May 29, 2025 (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).
Lamar was a complete force of nature each and every time he took the stage at Oracle Park, showcasing why he’s the best in the game right now — and will likely continue to be so for years to come. SZA’s vocals were superb — reaching their finest moment of the night with a gorgeous “Nobody Gets Me.” Yet, Bay Area fans have seen her do so much better — notably, during her headlining set at the 2022 Outside Lands festival in San Francisco or at brilliant concert at Oakland Arena in 2023.
They departed the stage after more than 2 1/2 hours of music as — without a doubt — two of the greatest artists in the world today. Yet, they just weren’t able to fashion a show together that matched that greatness.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA setlist:
Act 1: Lamar
1) “Wacced Out Murals”
2) “Squabble Up”
3) “King Kunta”
4) “Element”
5) “TV Off”
Act 2: SZA
6) “30 for 30”
7) “What Do I Do”
8) “Love Galore”
9) “Broken Clocks”
10) “The Weekend”
Act 3: Lamar
11) “Euphoria”
12) “Hey Now”
13) “Reincarnated”
14) “Humble”
15) “Backseat Freestyle”
16) “Family Ties”
17) “Swimming Pools (Drank)”
18) “M.A.A.D City”
19) “Alright”
20) “Man at the Garden”
Act 4: SZA
21) “Scorsese Baby Daddy”
22) “F2F”
23) “Garden (Say It Like Dat)”
24) “Kitchen”
25) “Blind”
26) “Consideration”
27) “Low”
Act 5: Lamar & SZA
28) “Doves in the Wind”
29) “All the Stars”
30) “Love”
Act 6: Lamar
31) “Dodger Blue”
32) “Peekaboo”
33) “Like That”
34) “DNA”
35) “Good Credit”
36) “Count Me Out”
37) “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”
38) “Money Trees”
39) “Poetic Justice”
Act 7: SZA
40) “I Hate U”
41) “Shirt”
42) “Kill Bill”
43) “Snooze”
44) “Crybaby”
45) “Nobody Gets Me”
46) “Good Days”
47) “Rich Baby Daddy”
48) “BMF”
49) “Kiss Me More”
Act 8: Lamar
50) “N95”
51) “TV Off” (second part)
52) “Not Like Us”
Act 9: Lamar & SZA
53) “Luther”
54) “Gloria”