Austin Post has a special place in my heart. So special in fact that I bought 2 VIP tickets to see him at the Birmingham date on his European tour this month.
To begin with I was hesitant - VIP tickets were a good sum of money and it was painful when it came out of my account – but wow was it worth it. We got super close and got some cool merch so I didn’t have to spend £70 on a t-shirt (eek). We got a tote bag, poster, lanyard and hat each. I’ve never had standing tickets in an arena before let alone be right by the stage and we were excited from the minute we got in there. We were so close we could feel the heat from the pyrotechnics behind the smoke before we could see them.
Neither of us (me or Jonny) were sure who either of the support acts were. From the reaction of everyone else around us I don’t think 95% of the rest of the arena knew either so I don’t feel that bad. Tyla Yaweh was a great surprise. He brought the energy straight out of the gate, got the crowd engaging with him and hyped up. He got mosh pits going and even got into the crowd to get in the mosh pit himself. My favourite song of his was called Gemini – very easy on the ears, got a good beat that’s easy to dance to and soft vocals. His first album dropped on Friday and it’s a pretty good bop, so I definitely recommend heading over to spotify or apple music or wherever you listen to find him.
When Post came on, I just blacked out for about 10 minutes. I forgot to sing along for ages due to pure excitement. I don’t know where my head went but it was not in that arena for sure. I even forgot that I was filming his entrance and the first song, and ended up filming the first two songs instead, so now I have a 5 minute long video to start off the night! He came on to Broken Whiskey Glass as a big black rectangular box rose from the stage into the air, leaving lots of smoke for Post to emerge from at just the right time. The box ended up doubling as an extra lighting rig which I thought was very clever.
The setlist was as follows: Broken Whiskey Glass (Stoney), Too Young (Stoney), Over Now (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Better Now (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Sugar Wraith (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Candy Paint (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Wow (single), Psycho (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Blame It on Me (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Paranoid (Beerbongs & Bentleys), I Fall Apart (Stoney), Up There (Stoney), Stay (Beerbongs & Bentleys), Feeling Whitney (Stoney), Leave (Stoney), Go Flex (Stoney), White Iverson (Stoney), Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Soundtrack), Rockstar (Beerbongs & Bentleys) and finally Congratulations (Stoney).
I was so happy and surprised that he played Sunflower. It’s such a feel-good song for me and I will forever be upset that it is only 2 minutes long. But I wasn’t expecting him to play that – with all the other songs on his two full length albums that he could’ve played I was expecting that to get overlooked due to being a soundtrack single. Although, I would’ve really liked to hear Spoil My Night (Beerbongs & Bentleys), that’s my favourite to sing along to. That and Ball For Me (Beerbongs & Bentleys). Of course, he can’t play every single song that he’s ever put out, but I wish he could. Listening to him play Stay and Feeling Whitney acoustically was very chill. It created that gorgeous atmosphere where the whole arena was singing along, gives you chills. I also enjoyed watching him mash up his guitar during Rockstar - I's never actually seen someone do that before, but now I have. It made us wonder what his guitar budget is for the tour, could get very expensive dependent on the guitar. But then again, he is Post Malone, he can completely afford it.
He bought some artistic licence to some of his songs in the form of shouting/screaming his lyrics, which I, as a metal fan, am not complaining about in the slightest. He was very good at it and made it sound good rather than like a 3-year-old who was trying to sing louder than you. Post Malone for Download Festival 2019??? It a yes from me.
He played Congratulations to end, with fireworks to send him off, which scared the living daylights out of me, being so close to the stage. Before he left though, he gave a little ending speech thanking us all for coming which is something I don’t see very often. I hear a lot of bands/artists say thank you between songs and that, but they always make some sort of dramatic exit. As a fan it was nice to hear that genuine thanks from him and for him to give a little love back to his supporters.
I had such an amazing night, it felt like he was on the stage for all of about 10 minutes, but time flies when you’re having fun right? 10/10 would pay the money to do that all over again. If you’d like to see more videos from the night head over to my Instagram @cerys.taylorx and watch my Post Malone highlight!
**All photos and videos in this post are taken by and owned by me**
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