Concert Review: POST MALONE, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Australia

*scroll down for a photo gallery of all the artists!*

I might seem something of a surprising fan of Post Malone since rap / hip hop / R&B wouldn’t be up there amongst my favourite genres to listen to, but there’s something about Post that stands out to me in a way that most artists don’t. Perhaps it’s his blending of musical genres that make him so appealing, as there are certainly elements of genres that I very much enjoy in his songs; or the way he actually sings in songs so it’s not just rapping all the time. Either way, I knew that if he was touring in Australia, I was going to see him.

We had a different layout at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre from the last time I’d been here, as this time the whole floor was General Admission. I, on the other hand, was up in the Gods. Concerts are super expensive here! I had been expecting two openers for the show, but in actuality we ended up more with two and a half, as DJ E Nice started with an attempt to hype up the crowd which I think ultimately fell flat as he seemed to be playing songs none of us had heard of.

Tyla Yaweh seemed to have better success as he came on stage with the words ‘My name is Tyla Yaweh, I’m from Orlando, Florida, and I’m here to F***ING RAGEEEEEE!’ One thing that can certainly be said of Tyla is that he certainly is a showman as he threw himself around the stage, and even into the crowd, making me incredibly glad that I was not in the pit as the crowd rushed in to surround him.

I didn’t mind some of his songs like Who Shot Johnny when they blurred the boundaries with other genres like Post does, but some were simply too vulgar for my taste with lyrics I’d rather not even print here. He made a very good attempt to hype up the crowd, getting on a security guards shoulders and wading into the middle of the pit, which he tried to make open up into a mosh pit to little avail. I mean, who wants to lose their space at a Post Malone gig for the sake of ‘f***ing raging’ before the headliner is even on?

I enjoyed the quote-unquote ‘softer’ songs of his like They Ain’t You, Chiquita, and She Bad, although at times it was difficult to tell if it was Tyla singing or the backing track. Nonetheless, he danced and put on a show, so props to him as that’s a lot more than some artists do.

Next up was Jaden Smith, with my immediate thought being ‘Wow, that’s a lot of autotune’. Even his speaking was autotuned which sounded super weird. He didn’t really do much on stage as he sang (with the exception of a couple of Fortnite dances) and had his music videos playing on the screens at the back which ultimately, I was more drawn to than his performances.

Thankfully, doing so made it a lot easier for me to figure out the songs on his setlist, which included Icon, Plastic, Goku and Fallen. I’d love to give Jaden the benefit of the doubt, but his performance really made me question whether it was his talent or his name that got him this far. I’d love to hear him some other time, this time without the autotune, to really make a clear judgement on that.

And so we came to the main event, Post Malone who kicked off with the loudest fireworks I’d ever heard which truly made my heart stop. Really, with all of the attacks on music events over recent years, was starting your show with loud bangs really the best idea?

Posty appeared on the very simple stage, just a strip extending into the crowd, dressed in a super colourful Wow suit, starting off with Too Young and Over Now complete with trippy visuals on the screens behind that might lead you to believe you’re on drugs or on set of Requiem For A Dream. He really does have a lovely voice when he sings, as highlighted on one of my top tracks, Better Now and No Option to which he shook his booty.

It didn’t take long before the Aussie crowd was chanting ‘Shoey!’, but Post made the smart decision of asking the crowd to volunteer a shoe for him to use rather than ruin his no doubt pretty pricey ones. We continued with 92 Explorer and Candy Paint.

For me, Post has a great percentage of what I would consider ‘great songs’ that you really want to sing along to (although perhaps the youngsters in the crowd, of which there were a few, probably shouldn’t have been singing along to), and we got to hear many of in his set for this tour, including new hit Wow, Paranoid and Psycho, which honestly I had no idea what it was about before, but can now reveal it is in fact about ‘owning a really cool which’.

Post said very little throughout the show, and whilst I would have appreciated more interaction with the audience, when he did talk to us, he was incredibly polite, saying things like ‘Thank you so f***ing much, ladies and gentlemen.’ Tell me when you’ve ever been called a lady or gentleman by a global superstar before.

We had a track for the broken hearted in I Fall Apart and then one about smoking weed to get away from your problems with the very vibey Up There which would be my one track to recommend to you after this show. We had another of my favourites after this with Stay as Post sat down on a stool with his guitar (more on that later) to show off all this singing talent that I’ve been banging on about for so long. It’s songs like these three that really make Post stand out for me.

He continued with Go Flex and what he considers to be the only good song of his (your fans disagree) White Iverson. The whole crowd was vibing out to his Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse hit Sunflower, during which I absolutely loved his comment ‘Brisbane, you’re my f***ing sunflower!’ If we weren’t totally hyped before this, we certainly were now, and this only continued with rockstar, after which he utterly obliterated the aforementioned guitar by smashing on the stage in complete rockstar style.

We finished with a somewhat surprising but totally relevant inspirational speech about pursuing whatever dream you have and not letting anyone tell you any different. Case in point: all of those people who had told Post he would never be anything, and are now the ones saying Congratulations. In spite of being so far away from the stage I could pretty much only make out colours, this was a super fun concert to attend. There was no choice but to let loose and enjoy yourself, rock out, and have a lot of fun. If rap / hip hop / R&B isn’t up your street, I really recommend you give Post a chance – you might be surprised. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review! If you did, feel free to drop me a message in the comments below, and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more reviews and interviews coming very soon - thanks for reading! 

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