Concert Review: Post Malone Live In NZ

Last night at Spark Arena was crazy! I suppose with a sold-out show you would expect that but this crowd had so much energy. The queues were going down the road by the time the front doors opened and over 11, 000 people slowly made their way into the building.

First to take the stage was someone people don’t know, Tyla Yaweh, however, for me, he was the main opening act I wanted to see. The lights went down and DJ E-Nice took the stage. He came out to get the crowds energy up and get them hyped for Tyla and I have to say, he did just that. He played a mix of great tracks to get the crowd hyped such as Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott. The crowd was loving it. Then with a quick announcement, Tyla came running down the runway and dived straight into the performance. He is such a ball of energy and really knows how to work the songs he performs, whether it’s jumping up and down or dancing like MJ. Tyla has a huge appreciation for fans and he wanted to show that so he jumped down to the barrier to say hi but he took it even further by jumping on a security guards shoulder’s right in the middle of the crowd. It was crazy but also just looked so fun.

Tyla performed a lot of songs off his new album ‘Heart Full of Rage’ including his new single ‘High Right Now’ which he just released the video for. His performance was backed by visuals from his music videos and also his social media handle. I liked the idea of using the music videos because it felt like it provided the right visual to the tracks. One of the last songs, Tyla took his shirt off, to the excitement of the predominantly female crowd. He then got everyone to put their misleading finger in the air and told the crowd how he came from homelessness and to “never let anyone tell you no, fuck the wolves”. When Tyla’s set came to an end he walked along the barrier high-giving fans and say thank you. It really was an incredible set and I really hope he gets the success he deserves.

Next up was the highly anticipated Jaden Smith. I think it would be hard to top Tyla and I suppose it’s hard because since he was 1st up, it just almost looked similar to Tyla’s set. Jaden, however, had different lighting and drowned himself in colour, particularly red. He also jumped around and busted out some dance moves. He is very smooth on his feet I’ll give him that. What I liked about his set was that I could hear his vocals over the backing track better than Tyla. I know a lot of rappers tend to work with a backing track but I think you need to also be able to hear them otherwise it’s more just lip-syncing. Jaden really pushed his vocals and you could hear the energy in his voice.

Like Tyla, he also had his social media handle and music videos across the screens. But Jaden also had words such as ‘Einhundert’ displayed which means one hundred. Harry Hudson joined him on stage and Jaden let the crowd know that they used to listen to Post every night in New York. Touching back on the crowd, Harry took notice, saying “man this crowd is crazy” as he departed the stage. Jaden also having said it was one of the best on the whole tour. Both Tyla and Jaden got the crowd to put their lights in the air and it was an awesome site to see. I know we’ve all seen this before but I felt like it was probably more special to them because of the size of the crowd. We felt that. But Jaden had to end the set on a high and keep the crowd hyped for Posty so obviously he had to end his set on his track ‘Icon’. Changing up the words he let Auckland know they “are an icon living”. Jaden seemed to be in his element and even though he has other pursuits, I can see him continuing on with his music. He knows what he wants to do with it. It is all thought through and executed well. But I am also curious to see how and if it changes much.

After he departed the stage a large rectangle box came down and surrounded the runway. The wait began for Post Malone’s reveal. The lights went down and flickers of light shone from within the rectangular box. Then it began to slowly rise with smoke flowing out. As it got bigger the lights came on even more and in a cloud of smoke Post Malone appeared. The smoke rose out from beneath the floor through grates and it also dropped down from the hovering lightbox. 2 large screens weather side came to life with live video of the man himself. Little did the crowd know there were more surprises in store with a loud band of fireworks going off during the 2nd song ‘Too Young’. Pyro then began shooting up by the screens for a few of the songs. Now, this was no small set. The setlist was 22 songs long (as you can see below). This was broken up well, with Posty even sitting down to play the guitar and serenade the crowd with ‘Stay’. However, that wasn’t the only time he sat down.

Prior to this song, Post had been going so hard that he took a fall and as he stood up he was hobbling. Not trying to elude the crowd he let them know “y’ all I think I just fucked my foot up”. He was also had pre-warned the crowd that he was a bit sick and might sound a bit shit so if they could help him out it would be great. Though I wasn’t surprised by this as he just smashed out a bunch of shows in Australia and we were the end of this run. After his team sprayed some stuff on his foot he got back to his feet and continued as normal, though he wasn’t jumping around as much. I really have to acknowledge him for this. He put the crowd ahead of himself and made sure the crowd got a show even though you could see he was in pain. But he pushed through and kept the crowd updated of everything going on, he was transparent and I think the crowd appreciated it, I know I did.

After performing ‘Wow’ from the chair he then took on the job of doing a shoey. As much as it’s an Australian thing, the crowd was all for it. I was a bit worried when he asked the crowd who is going to supply a show and 1 nearly hit him in the head. But he picked it up and prepped the shoe. “I may be sick but I still like to party man. Here’s to Posty!”. I find them disgusting but hey it’s entertaining I guess.

The song I was wanting to hear finally came ‘I Fall Apart’. The crowd sang it so loudly and I appreciated hearing Post Malone’s raw voice perform the track as well. Hearing the studio version, you wonder how it sounds live and honestly, it sounds the same but more raw, which was awesome “Thank you so fucking much man. You guys sound so beautiful man”.

I missed Post Malone’s last show and from what I heard, I’m glad I got to see him this time around because the show was so incredible. I particularly loved his last speech and song which I’m going to type out fully as I think it’s just 1 of those speeches we all need at this time: “I started making music when I was 12 years old and I sat down with a guitar that my mum got me for Christmas. I started you know teaching myself to play it and write my own shit. You know I got a little bit older and eventually, I started rapping and singing over beats that I produced. Eventually, I moved to LA and everything seemed to change overnight and that’s thanks to y’ all motherfuckers fan thank you so much.

You know but then people started coming out of the woodwork, talking shit about me and calling me a 1-hit wonder and just every fucking name under the sun. Even saying they wished I’d die in a plane crash (crowd boos). They said we’d never go fucking gold, we’d never go fucking platinum, we’d never go fucking diamond, we’d never fucking play Auckland in front of thousands of fucking beautiful people. You know that’s fucking a-okay man because I see those same motherfuckers that were talking shit at me and they always say congratu-fucking-lation’s! Auckland this is my way of fucking telling y’ all do whatever the fuck you wanna do because each and every single one of you kicks fucking ass and nobody can fucking tell you shit! Live your fuckin’ life, live your fuckin’ dream, do what you’re passionate about and don’t let nobody fucking stop you because you fucking kick ass and they can’t tell you shit”

Post Malone went out with ‘Congratulations’. Fireworks shot out the top of the light box and there was really no better way to end a show “Thank you so fucking much. I appreciate each and every single one of you" and after mentioning he'll see everyone tomorrow he departed the stage.

If you’ve ever debated seeing Post Malone live or any of these artists, I highly recommend it! One more show Auckland, let’s go!

Purchase your tickets for the second show from http://bit.ly/2YQIli7.

SET LIST:

Intro + 1st song
Too Young
Over Now
Better Now
No Option
Sugar Wraith
Candy Paint
Wow
Psycho
92 Explorer
Paranoid
I Fall Apart
Up There
Stay
Feeling Whitney
Leave
Go Flex
White Iverson
Return of the Mac
Sunflower
Rockstar
Congratulations

– Reviewed and Photographed by Shelley Te Haara
www.instagram.com/art.by.shelley
www.shelleytehaara.com