Live Review: BROCKHAMPTON

Texan music collective BROCKHAMPTON brought their explosive energy to the Enmore.

The lines went down the street and around the corner on both sides of Enmore Road as the crowd lingered outside for the doors to open. Rumours trickled up the line among the security and RSA officers that there had been some production delays and by the time they did open the doors, nearly an hour late, the crowd had grown restless and eager.

BROCKHAMPTON took the stage just as the people at the back of the line made their way into the venue and despite having no support acts to warm up the crowd, their reception was huge. The band is nothing if not prolific having released three full albums last year alone. Their newest album, Iridescence, just dropped last week and barely offering time to delve into it too deeply before the gig, tonight’s performance was an initiation to their new material for many. 

The six performing band members (the collective also consisting of a bunch of other dudes who operate on the outskirts) assembled in front of a projection screen, which would display a mix of footage throughout the night (including splices of Sydney landmarks) all with a hallucinogenic LSD rainbow filter applied. This set-up was often really fun, but also messy with the lack of a standout frontman meaning the whole band was constantly vying for attention and the audience's focus was inevitably confused and split. 

The choreography that they did have was equally strange. When the group performed TONYA it was at the very back of the stage, with their backs to the audience. They sang another song sitting on the floor. When a different song ended and the lights went dark for 30 seconds, the audience bristled with anticipation - when the lights came up to reveal six stools at the front of the stage the thought was, “Yay, they’re going to sit again.” On one hand, it was interesting to mix up the visuals like this, and credit to the group for playing with space to try and make the boy band format work, but we're not sure it was entirely successful.

Boy band vibes aside BROCKHAMPTON are undeniably a heap of fun. The new album is sick, although perhaps lacking in the magnitude of bangers that helped the band blow up, but the performance was a great intro to it. Classics GOLD and SWEET brought the house down, and finishing the encore with BOOGIE was the perfect way to end the night on a high note. BROCKHAMPTON have had a big two years and we’re likely going to see even bigger things from them soon.