Concert Review: Denzel Curry Live In Auckland

Denzel Curry returned to New Zealand on Tuesday night after performing at the annual Auckland Laneway festival earlier on in the year, as well as, two sold-out shows in Wellington. I’m simply convinced that one of Denzel’s favourite fan bases is right here in Aotearoa because the man himself just keeps coming back for not one, but multiple shows. 

And obviously we turn out for him Every. Single. Time!

Denzel Curry played his first out of two Auckland shows at The Studio last night, with his second show going down tonight that is SOLD OUT.  All I can say is if you wanna let go and just f*cking rage, a Denzel Curry concert is the place to do that. The fusion of rock and rap is really interesting but it’s even more interesting actually witnessing it in the flesh and watching it go down with the reaction from the fans.

With The Studio right on the infamous K Road, I knew it was going to be a good night because just honestly, gigs on K Road always turn up. With no set times released, I had no idea who was opening or what time Denzel would come on and on some real sh*t, set times always helps for us fans so we can plan our night, especially because we don’t want to miss the main act.

Aaaaanyway, I managed to get there at 8:30pm and the place was half packed. I was happily greeted by the Sweet Mix Kids, a New Zealand DJ duo who were both faceless, covered in black glittery masks with a DJ stand in front of each of ‘em. It gave me some serious Ibiza club vibes. Their costumes and set up made the party experience that much more realer and I knew the rich white kids in the crowd were absolutely frothing. I really enjoy DJ sets when they know their audience for that gig and they play the right songs and that’s exactly what they pulled off. The Sweet Mix Kids have performed at Coachella and have done private parties for big names like Adele and Ed Sheeran. The duo really do live up that high standard of performance, playing songs the crowd died for and I surprisingly witnessed a mosh pit in their set. I’ve never actually seen a proper mosh pit at a New Zealand concert so that’s when I knew, this crowd was rowdy as f*ck and beyond ready for Denzel.

There was a 15-minute gap where there was no DJ or performer, which as a fan when there’s nothing going on after being incredibly hyped up, I tend to get bored or lose that hype. However, in saying that, this is pretty normal for a concert. Denzel Curry came out around 9:30pm with so much energy. The majority of his first couple songs were all from his latest album, ZUU that was released in May. ‘Cause the album was pretty much a homage to his hometown Miami-dade, you could sense that him performing all those tracks here in little ole New Zealand to a crowd of adoring fans, was a full-circle moment for him. I thought that was really nice to observe. The lighting, however, fully f*cking sucked. 8/10 times throughout the night, the most you could see of Denzel was just his outline. Especially for people at the back of the crowd, you could barely see what the guy looked like. Hopefully, that’ll improve for the show tonight.

Without a doubt, Denzel Curry goes nuts. Every once in a while he’d let out these rock screams, which to me, it was pretty much telling me “F*CK IT! Let loose” and it was just awesome man. Denzel also did like, 3 XXXTentacion tribute songs, which I always deeply appreciate as an X fan. They were both from Miami and were really close so I felt that on another level.  He literally made everyone in the crowd get low (successfully, I might add), like, squat type sh*t and then jump up and mosh when the drop hit. Denzel Curry’s concert did not end at 11pm as the ticket website indicated it would and the crowd had 0 manners but it honestly didn’t matter because the guy took his shirt off. I mean, Denzel has BODY. So, I really appreciated that too (smirk emoji). Overall, I get why his New Zealand fans love him so much and I can’t wait for his return again in 2020.

Reviewed: Breanna Tugaga-Rogers
Photos: 10Daniel16