The House That Roars lived up to its name as homecoming concert headliner Kid Cudi brought the Anderson Arena to near capacity last night.

The venue was still filling when University student rapper QC took the stage as the event’s opener. QC made frequent Bowling Green references during his performance, eliciting enthusiastic cheers each time from the crowd.

Following the conclusion of QC’s set, the size of the crowd began to grow considerably. By the time the event’s second opening act, Chip tha Ripper, took the stage, the crowd was out in full force. Audience members rose excitedly to their feet when he began.

“You all good?” he asked.

The answer was a collective cheer confirming his suspicion. Fans waved their hands to the beat along with Ripper according to his lyrical request.

Sophomore Leah Martin had seen Ripper before, once at Sky Bar downtown, as well as with Cudi at a concert in the two rappers’ native Cleveland, which she too calls home.

“Chip the Ripper is so real,” she said. “He’s awesome.”

The real pull of the show was yet to come. During breaks between acts, Cudi chants drowned out the filler music. For Martin, the ability to identify with Cudi’s lyrics is what birthed her fandom, along with sharing a hometown.

“He is so different from everyone else,” she said. “He raps about very real stuff you can really relate to.”

Seeing Cudi live for the first time was freshman Sarah Kubicki. Her excitement for the show was visible as she explained she heard Cudi for the first time after a friend recommended him and she has followed his music ever since. Her favorite Cudi song, she said, is his popular track “The Pursuit of Happiness.”

“The song has a really good message,” she said.

As the time for Cudi’s set drew near, the chants and cries rose sharply in decibel. Fans waved cell phones high over their heads like frenzied fireflies against a living backdrop. The time had come, and Cudi’s entrance to the stage further stoked the energy in the building.

The headliner ran on to the stage and immediately summoned all fans on the floor to leave their seats and come to the front. The mass of people overwhelmingly rushed the edge of the stage, creating a concentration of Cudi fanatics at its perimeter. Some brave attendees climbed down from their bleacher seats to join in the movement.

Cudi danced wildly with the beat as he rapped his opening song “Revofev,” short for revolution of evolution, according to his website. The song is the first single off of his new album “Man on the II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.”

The audience loudly contributed chorus assistance when Cudi moved to his well known song “Soundtrack to My Life.” He encouraged the chime-in by holding his microphone out to the crowd as an inviting gesture.

Senior Phil Ferguson was in town from an internship at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. Though the show was not his sole motivation for returning, he said it was a huge factor in the decision. He has looked forward to the show from the moment he learned of it through a campus update email.

“He’s probably one of my favorite artists,” he said.

Some concert-goers took advantage of the sheer numbers of the crowd and the shows sheltering dark. As Chip tha Ripper returned to the stage to perform with Cudi on their collaborative song “Higher,” marijuana smoke drifted through the bleacher seats, offending a few, amusing more.

Kubicki’s favorite song, “Pursuit of Happiness,” brought the greatest reaction from the crowd. Reserved as one of the last songs performed, the track rendered a thundering reaction, and many in the audience’s bleacher seats danced with as much movement as the tight quarters allowed.

Though he had some disappointment in the acoustics of the arena, Ferguson said the show was well worth the trip back from Pittsburgh.

“This is the third homecoming concert I’ve been to,” he said. “I definitely think this was the best of them all.”