Concert Review: "Blue faces for a night not so blue" - Brockhampton @ Corona, Feb. 6, 2018

Once I learned that Brockhampton was coming to Montreal, I instantly started listening to all of their four albums religiously.  I now believe that all of the 16-year-old boys in Montreal did the same.

Last Tuesday, Montreal’s rap enthusiast community had the great honor of welcoming the 15 members that form the American music group Brockhampton for a show of high-intensity at Corona Theater.

The band, created in 2015, is the brainchild of Texas-raised artist Kevin Abstract who, via a website specific for fans of Kanye West, formed a band designated to redefining the title “boy band” and creating music that imperatively mandates inclusivity and diversity.

One big step for the music industry.

I had heard the rumors and I had seen the concert footage, so I had anticipated the wildness of the concert.

Final verdict: the rappers were sick, but the crowd was mental.

Right off the bat, starting with music track “GUMMY”, the crowd instantly merged into one big flock, rocking from left to right like a perfectly rhythmic pendulum. Nonetheless, it did not smother people from raping at the top of their lungs to some of the band’s bounciest songs like “BOOGIE”, “ZIPPER”, “HEAT”, “JUNKY”, “GOLD”, “QUEER”, and more.

They did not cease to surprise me. With their unrealistic energy, their authentic rap flow, and their goofy dance moves, Brockhampton managed to bring a whole nation together.

What was an hour and half show with a 20-song set-list seemed like a surreal experience of euphoria.  

The vocal members who seemed to bounce off of the crowd’s energy the most were JOBA, Merlyn Wood and Kevin Abstract. While they would never stop hyping up each other’s verses, they still made sure to keep some of that hype for the people in the crowd, forbidding us to fall behind. That being said, the rest of the crew’s rappers like Matt Champion, Ameer Vann and Dom McLennon were phenomenal at delivering their heated verses with a rap flow that goes beyond belief.

Close to the end, singer Bearface took the mic and shook us all with his melancholic and soothing voice, guiding the crowd to a moment of deep appreciation and gratification.

As a last tribute to their blue-face orange-jumpsuit trademark costumes, Abstract invited a couple of fans from the crowd on stage—who made the extraordinary effort of duplicating the million-dollar look—to help the band rap the last song of the night, “STAR”. They went on to play the cleverest of their song, not once, not twice, but three times in a row, leaving the crowd K.O. by the end of it all.

Recapitulating my evening, I was drenched from all the sweat me and the teenage boys next to me had collectively produced, I had gotten elbowed in the face three times, I had battle scars, and a good portion of my hair had been pulled out—but I had never felt more alive.

It was almost rejuvenating, being part of such an experience and with a big fat smile on my face, content with how my Tuesday evening had been spent; I went to get my coat check and catch the last metro to go back home, thinking that Ameer Vann really phrased it perfectly when he sang in “BOOGIE”: “Best boy band since One Direction.”