At 8:15 p.m., hip-hop artist Casey Veggies waited in an alley by Blue Moose, 211 Iowa, before show time. He’s not alone; he sat on a bucket seat inside a red minivan with an Arizona license plate next to his brother, his friend and tour manager also in the vehicle.

At this point in the night everyone was calm, charging up in preparation for the show.

Thirty minutes later, Veggies jumped on the Blue Moose stage wearing a white undershirt, a forward-facing snapback, two gold chains, a pinky ring, and two Lokai bracelets.

Hands and bodies dipped up and down in unison as Veggies performed a few songs back to back. Then, he engaged the crowd with conversation.

He asked the audience where everyone is from, responds, and sings a few more songs from the past before he fires it up and gets into songs from his new album, Live & Grow.

“Actin’ Up” started playing – a song Veggies previously described to The Daily Iowan as a Snoop Dogg vibe song – and the crowd went nuts singing, clapping, and jumping along to the beat.

As the show jived on, the dominantly male audience continued to be in sync with Veggies.

He took a moment aside from music to talk about Iowa’s football team and their success in the recent NCAA playoff rankings, and started a chant, “Let’s go Iowa, let’s go, clap clap”.

Check out a slideshow of the concert here

Veggies seemed to have a lot of fun with the crowd all night, with his buds behind him on stage watching with him.

Throughout the show, between songs, Veggies often said “swag swag” and “ain’t no squares in my circle,” the latter lyrics from his song, “Circle.”

A friend took a photo of Veggies on stage with the crowd in the background, all posing with their fingers twisted into a “W”.

He introduced two songs “for the ladies.” One of them titled “Wonderful,” and the other a radio hit single, “Tied Up.”

Veggies estimated between 100 and 200 people in attendance at the show.