Brockhampton bring chaos to Auckland: A rap show like no other

Kevin Abstract of Brockhampton performs on stage. Photo / Getty

Here's something you don't often see at a hip-hop concert: six members of a super-young, hyper-real, massively hyped hip-hop crew kneeling down, harmonising an acoustic ballad together.

But Brockhampton aren't like most rap bands, and that moment, on a really rather great song called San Marcos that occurred halfway through last night's sold out Logan Campbell Centre show, proved that point perfectly.

Brockhampton performs on Camp Stage during day 1 of Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 at Exposition Park on October 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Photo / Getty

Even more surprising was the lighters-up hand-waving it inspired, followed by a mass singalong of its hook: "I want more out of life than this."

That's been the motto of the Californian crew in the three years they've been together, grabbing the zeitgeist with their overpowering combination of electric energy, boy band appeal and serious rap smarts.

Their back story - meeting via a Kanye West fan forum - certainly helps too.

Less than half of the 13-strong Californian collective had made it to New Zealand for their debut show, the first since the quick fire release of their fourth album, Iridescence, just hours earlier.

It didn't matter: that perfect timing, along with the show being livestreamed to thousands of fans overseas, meant their concert had quickly become an event, one packed with rabid fans struggling to cope with a delayed start time.

At least two were seen being hauled out of a heated moshpit by security and being loaded into ambulances.

Six of them proved to be more than enough, and while playing Iridescence in full was a risky move, Brockhampton's fan power was in full force: many had already learnt the lyrics to an album not yet a day old, some leaning over balconies, hands on hearts, emptying their lungs to every word.

It helps that Iridescence has already become Brockhampton's best album, one on which their music finally measures up to their hype. They've done it by finding frenetic beats that match their frazzled energy and personality melting pot: the squelches of New Orleans, the pots-and-pans trunk rattling of Berlin and the basement grime of J'ourvert are big songs performed at high energy as members fade in, out and across each other.

With songs like that, and a stage presence that includes matching Dickies workwear and co-ordinated dance moves, it's impossible not to buy in. They're an intoxicating proposition, a mix of Run the Jewels' camaraderie, Donald Glover's mainstream smarts, and Kanye West's 'f*** it' attitude, with a dash of the Spice Girls' all-for-one, one-for-all gang mentality thrown into the mix.

While some of Iridescence feels yet to be fully embodied live, that's to be expected - you can bet Brockhampton will be back in a bigger venue in a short space of time with those songs feeling far more alive and lived in.

But after playing the album's 15 tracks back-to-back they returned for an extended encore, one that already feels like a greatest hits set with the best bits of their Saturation album trilogy: sweaty, deranged versions of Gummy, Zipper, Queer and Sweet, with Boogie saved for a perfectly chaotic finale.

The world, it seems, is Brockhampton's for the taking.

Who: Brockhampton
Where: Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland
When: Friday, September 21