Wednesday night at The Foundry, boyband Brockhampton gave an energetic and animated show to remember. In total, eight of the seventeen current members of the artistic collective performed.
The show began with Romil, the DJ, playing a few songs to get the crowd hyped up and asked them to give him a few “yeehaws”. It wasn’t even necessary. The venue was full of Brockhampton superfans who, from the moment they burst out to the moment they left, yelled and rapped and sang along to all the songs. Each of the rappers came out individually for HEAT and fell to the ground as the next entered. At the end of the song, they swayed together in a line until a blackout, a reference to their music video. At other points, as one of them rapped, everyone else on the stage froze in poses, bathed in the stage lights. It was clear that although they had a lot of fun performing, they also treated the show as a drama of precision. The audience played right into it. In one song, Kevin yelled, “be quiet,” and the audience emphatically responded, “shhh!”.
Even as rising stars, they remain incredibly humble and make it known that they care about their fans far more than most artists. At one point, a teenaged girl in the front row held up a notebook, and Kevin grabbed it and held it up on stage. They also gave the fans bottles of water throughout the night. Many of them crowdsurfed and interacted with the audience throughout the show. Dom at one point lost his shoe in the crowd and just carried on.
Throughout the concert, they kept up an astonishing level of energy—none of them ever seemed tired or out of breath. Joba’s and Bearface’s vocals sounded as good live as on the record. Each of them has a unique stage presence and brought another layer of complexity to the production. The show ended spectacularly, with them performing STAR six times in a row, the crowd getting more energized each time they repeated it. At the end of it all, in true boyband fashion, they did an impromptu meet and greet for anyone who wanted to stay (which was almost everyone). For a group that released its debut album three months ago, they already have a dedicated and adoring fan base. One thing is for certain, the self-styled “Southside One Direction” is sure to have a stellar future ahead.
