With the 2017 release of three albums — "Saturation," "Saturation II," and "Saturation III" — America’s favorite boy band Brockhampton took a sledgehammer to the door of the hip-hop game. With their 2018 Love Your Parents tour, Brockhampton is shoving their faces through that shattered door to let the world know they are not going anywhere.
The 15-member band first met on a Kanye West fan forum. From there, group curator Kevin Abstract built off each member’s strengths to form the now-famous group, Brockhampton.
Vocally Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion, Ameer Vann, Merlyn Wood, Ciaran Ruaridh McDonald — aka Bearface —, Dominic Michael Simpson — aka Dom McLennon — and Russell Boring — aka JOBA — lead the way as Brockhampton’s many talented faces.
Brockhampton took to the stage at the Ogden Theatre in Denver, Colorado on Feb. 22. The band was greeted with long lines of freezing teens donned in orange jumpsuits, Smurf blue painted faces and undeniable love.
My preconceived notion that the young Denver audience would not be hype enough for a Brockhampton concert was brutally crushed from the very first second Ameer Vann took to the stage, donning a mask and hoodie.
The mere presence of one member of the 15-person collective was enough to turn the compact audience into a wave of insanity. Once the rest of Brockhampton ran onto the stage, there was no hope for anyone not white-knuckling a nailed down appliance.
I saw countless bystanders get swept away in the human current that turned into a two-hour storm of waving hands, bouncing feet and uncontrollable chaos.
None of that chaos was unwarranted.
Brockhampton lit up the sold-out show with an unbelievable amount of intensity. The opening song, “BOOGIE,” is strong enough that any other artist might have saved it for their encore, but not Brockhampton. Everyone immediately lost their collective minds and started the craziest mosh pits I have ever seen at a rap show.
The group has put themselves in a strange situation that only the biggest names in the music industry have — they have too many good songs. In 2017 alone, Brockhampton released close to 50 songs, and all are critically acclaimed kickers.
From there the band’s energetic glow only shone brighter and brighter, all building up to the heart of the night’s performance when they played “JUNKY” — an equally aggressive, catchy and politically fueled song, where Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion and Ameer Vann have arguably their best verses collected on one song.
And the show still was not anywhere close to being over. With eight songs left to perform, Brockhampton made room for a handful of their slower tracks such as “BLEACH,” “SUMMER” and “TEAM.”
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Near the end of the show, the audience fell quiet for the first time in an hour and a half when an unknown song began to play, and the members of Brockhampton froze on stage. As fans online later pointed out, this untitled song could be a peek into the band’s next album, TEAM EFFORT, set to release this year.
Brockhampton was determined to send each and every person in the audience home with absolutely no energy, as their last song was the highly aggressive, head-banging, fist-shaking banger, “HEAT,” that demanded nothing less than 100 percent audience participation.
If there was any doubt about how wild, crazy and totally unique Brockhampton is as a group, that doubt was completely shattered by the stunning performance the boy band put on in Denver.
With ears ringing, a sweaty shirt and almost no voice, my only thought as I was leaving the Ogden theater was, “When can I see Brockhampton again?”
Colton Newman is the photo editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at photo@dailylobo.com or on @coltonperson.
