George Watsky is master of the mic in his third Higher Ground show.
Jimmy Britt / Castleton Spartan

The sound of a cheering crowd and a wave of bodies dancing to music filled the dance floor at Higher Ground in Burlington on Nov. 9.

The San Francisco based alternative hip-hop artist and poet George Watsky performed for his third time at the venue and the place was electric.

But an hour before he performed, the atmosphere and mood was completely different.

Before his show, Watsky performed a 30-minute poetry set and a meet and greet for a few lucky fans. He performed some of his classic poems like “Nothing Like The First Time,” “Drunk Text Messages To God,” and “S Is For Lisp.” After his set Watsky walked around to the small audience to talk to them and give them autographed posters.

“I want you all to feel like you got something out of this,” said Watsky. “If you want me to take a picture with you, Skype your little brother, or if you want to slap me in the face because I said crap to you in a YouTube comment. I just want to make sure you got something out of it.”

During the meet and greet, Watsky answered fans questions about many different subjects.

“How was it to play Poe in the Epic Rap Battles of History?”one fan asked.

“It was really cool, but the wig and bald cap were really weird itchy. I liked playing famous poets like him and Shakespeare and using their styles of poetry in the raps. I definitely would do it again if I could do another poet.”

Another wanted to know if he thought rappers like Mac Miller are genuine people on stage.

“I honestly don’t know him personally, but I think he’s true to himself on stage. When I go on stage, I try to be myself, but better. I turn off the negativity in my head and just boost the positive and good in me on stage,” he said.

 And when asked how he would expand on his next album or mix tape, he said  “I would like to work with people I did in the past like Tobias Butler. I’d also like to work with Bo Burnham again but on music this time.”

Once the meet and greet was over and all the fans were satisfied, he went to get ready for his show. The opening acts were Anderson Paak with Kush Mody and Max Miller-Loran. All three also play with Watsky and Kyle with Super Duper Brick. All the openers were amazing and revved up the crowd for Watsky.

He started to perform songs from his new album “All You Can Do,” but he then changed his line up because of how lively the crowd was. The crowd went crazy when he sang “Ninja’s in Paris” from the album “Nothing Like the First Time.”

As the night went on, during the song “Sloppy Seconds” from “Cardboard Castles,” Watsky had the crowd kneel down and then jump up at the final hook of the song. But when he performed “IDGAF” from “Nothing Like The First Time” as his closer, the crowd went ballistic and sang and danced their hearts out.

The whole show was just simply amazing and Watsky said he wants to perform for a fourth time at Higher Ground if he can.