Live review: Brockhampton, last night at the Truman
Many people, myself included, rolled their eyes at Brockhampton’s recent assertion that it’s a boy band. Sure, it’s a band full of boys, but most of Brockhampton’s material lands much closer to alternative hip-hop than One Direction. There are some poppy tracks on the albums from last year’s Saturation trilogy, but it still felt like a stretch to call Brockhampton a boy band without using air quotes.
Or it did, at least, until a few seconds into Wednesday night’s show at the Truman. As seven of the group’s members — each of them suited up in their signature orange jumpsuits — dashed out from backstage, zig-zagging around a series of chairs and a couch, the crowd cried out — screamed, really — in joy. Fans shouted out names of band members, and often not even the most popular ones, like Kevin Abstract (the group’s de facto leader) and Ameer (whose face adorns all three Brockhampton album covers). That kind of superfan behavior actually did seem pretty boy band-ish. I didn’t feel the impulse to shout myself, but Ameer is my guy (which maybe makes me a bad fan).
Following a lights-out opening performance of the siren-synth party-starter “Boogie,” the crew paused to lead the crowd in chants of “Fuck Pitchfork!” — Kevin Abstract recently tweeted his disapproval of the site’s reviews of Saturation, then printed that tweet on a t-shirt — and “I’m gay!” — because Kevin is gay and likes to joke around like that. Later on in the night, much to everyone’s delight, Kevin also instructed the kids to tell their parents that Brockhampton is pushing the gay agenda on the children. Ameer, who is known for dishing out the group’s most aggressive bars, twerked at the front of the stage for a few moments as the plucked notes of “Jello” echoed through the warehouse. While the group’s banter and lyrical content are far more tame than those of Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt, moments like these are a reminder of the clear parallels between Brockhampton and the early days of Odd Future.
Another factor that elevates Brockhampton over other boy bands is the fact that it’s arguably the first hip-hop boy band. Instead of watching five guys with similar haircuts sing in only slightly different voices, each member of Brockhampton offers up a distinct style of singing or rapping. Joba’s silky falsetto carried the chorus of “Face,” a slow-burning love song that the rest of the band swayed along to, and which pulled at the heartstrings of the young and the young at heart. Merlyn’s unpredictable flow and emphatic enunciation on “Sweet” and “Gold” instigated plenty of crooked dance moves and enthusiastic rap-alongs to his hyper-quotable lines.
After an hour of music and youthful banter, the mic-wielding members of Brockhampton sat down on their furnishings and brought out a few other members of the group — producers Jabari and Kiko — and shouted out DJ Romil and lighting guy HK before starting an audience Q&A that ultimately didn’t produce any worthwhile dialogue and zapped some of the crowd’s energy. The final song of the second encore, the highly belligerent “Heat,” tested the venue’s speakers with its rattling drums and screamed vocals, as the band stood in a straight line, bodies slumped forward, to mimic the song’s viral music video. The track nearly blew the lid off the place — a fitting cap to a powerful evening for a generation that needed, and has now received, its own boy band.
