Alone on the Auditorium stage Tuesday night with nothing but an elaborate light show, a microphone and a DJ behind him, I was wondering if the little guy could manage to keep the slew of drunken and excited MSU students in front of him happy and entertained.

My reservations were almost immediately put to rest as Cudi opened his mouth and started his first song. The crowd went wild and Cudi’s energy and plain happiness to be up there were tangible.

However, very early on in the act one thing became extremely apparent — we were definitely not watching a musician at all.

No, Cudi is a performer.

Projecting as much with his arms and his facial expressions as with his voice, Cudi seemed to cover the entire stage even when he was standing in one spot with the microphone still on the stand.

“How am I doin’?” he asked the crowd.

Awesome, Cudi. Awesome.

Although I was definitely familiar with his albums and his music, I had never really declared myself a hardcore Cudi fan. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure exactly how to pronounce his name (Cootie? Cutie? What?) until a few months ago.

However, Cudi managed to change my feelings entirely with his live performance. With his beats taken care of by a DJ, it was all on him to bring the show to life and he did not disappoint despite the pressure.

His opening acts included Kansas-based rapper XV who, on first impression, looked like Cudi had reproduced with Mikey Rocks of the Cool Kids, but after listening for a few songs, he managed to get even a Cudi-obsessed crowd to warm up to him and cheer on what was one of the most enjoyable unfamiliar opening acts I’ve seen in a long time.

XV was followed by a trio of rappers I honestly hope to forget and could not understand the name of who did not manage to win over the crowd and was followed by rapper Big Sean who performed one song and then promptly left the stage.

Personally, I found the highlight was opening act Clipse (a longtime favorite of mine), who gave an awesome performance of songs that fans of the duo would be sure to recognize of their albums. However, I think I can speak for the every one in attendance and the members of Clipse when I say it just wasn’t what many came to a Kid Cudi concert wanting to hear, even if I loved it.

Don’t worry Malice and Pusha, you’re still my number one boys.

When Cudi did finally come on stage after a couple too many openers, the atmosphere he created was a fun and welcoming one, complete with lots of interaction with the audience and electricity coming straight from Cudi.

Even when Kid would slow it down, the people still were totally entranced by his stage presence.

Ending the show with three songs back-to-back and wrapping up with his hit “Day ‘n’ Night,” (this particular trio being the biggest crowd pleaser of the night by far) Cudi put on a show that many would never forget, and just in case they did, he came out for an encore that arguably stole the show.

He left the audience with “Pursuit of Happiness,” his collaboration with Ratatat and MGMT, that involved the most lights, the loudest bass and the best reaction of the night.

Overall, Cudi was straight up awesome and managed to impress even me, who was more than ready to sign it off as a Clipse show and hate whatever came on afterward. But lo and behold, he hit the mark as hard as he could and proved me wrong. Kudos, Cudi.

“You guy’s still with me?”

Oh Cudi, it’s not even a question.