The following review was written last year for ‘WMUA’ radio station, sadly their blog was recently shut down, so I thought I’d share the review here. Obviously that means the review is outdated, but more recent BROCKHAMPTON content can be found here.
“Everything about BROCKHAMPTON is unconventional. During 2017, the band released three feature-length albums over the course of six months, entitled the ‘Saturation’ trilogy; each of which received high critical acclaim, with ‘Saturation III’ peaking at 15 in the US charts. The collective of around 15 members produce everything themselves; creating their albums, music videos and merchandise all at their shared home in Los Angeles.
The group quickly developed an enthusiastic fan-base attracted to both the music and it’s content. BROCKHAMPTON discuss topics often ignored in popular culture, let alone in rap music, such as: sexuality, mental health, rape culture and addiction, amongst others. Despite the nature of some of these topics, BROCKHAMPTON’s music is full of energy and isn’t as hard-hitting as one might expect, with songs such as ‘STAR’, containing members of the group interpolating countless popular culture references over the course of the three minute track.
On February 5th2018, I arrived at the House of Blues venue in Boston an hour and a half before doors opened to BROCKHAMPTON’s sold out show. Around a hundred or so people were already lined up, despite the bitterly cold temperatures of -8 degrees celsius. Some fans were dressed in orange jumpsuits, with blue face paint – mimicking the costume often worn by the boy band in their music videos and live performances. The audience consisted of all genders; primarily teenagers and those in their twenties.
Once inside the 2500 capacity venue, without any opening act, group member, Ameer Vann walked onto stage alone and slowly got changed into an orange jumpsuit. Within moments the other 6 primary members of the group ran onto stage in matching outfits, with the booming single ‘BOOGIE’ opening the set. The boy band stormed through fifteen songs in quick succession. Each rapper had incredible energy. They were all constantly jumping around the stage, dancing, interacting with the audience or providing backing vocals/adlibs for the other members of the group – the energy and atmosphere was unlike any concert I’ve been too.
One unusual aspect of BROCKHAMPTON, is that despite being a rap group, one of the members, bearface, doesn’t rap, he just sings: only contributing to 5 songs over the Saturation trilogy. After an hour and half of the main rap-heavy set, the other members all left the stage, leaving only bearface, who’d been sat on stage with his guitar just watching the previous set. He performed the slow-paced emotional BROCKHAMPTON tracks ‘SUMMER’ and ‘TEAM’ which left the crowd who had been crazily moshing before, swaying from side to side with lighters raised in the air.
After the short solo set, the other members returned for an encore, which included performing their hit song, ‘STAR’, five times consecutively – each time requesting a larger mosh pit, bringing members of their crew such as their sound engineers or videographers on stage, before finally bringing on stage thirty or so of the loyal fans who had mimicked the boy band’s iconic orange jumpsuit and blue face paint combination – it was madness.
The 2018 national tour is entitled ‘Love Your Parents Tour – A Live Experience By BROCKHAMPTON’ and I can’t think of a more fitting description of the concert, than it being ‘a live experience.’ The music of BROCKHAMPTON is unique, energetic and emotional. I would highly recommend giving BROCKHAMPTON’s Saturation trilogy a listen, and seizing the opportunity to see them live if you ever get the opportunity.”
The Gig Archive 