More about: BROCKHAMPTON

BROCKHAMPTON is nearing the end of the line, having last month announced their intention to separate after their Coachella dates in April. Their final show in Europe goes down a treat.

Before the boyband take to the stage, the audience are like a coiled spring, keenly aware of what tonight represents. Even false starts with the lighting get people cheering. Support act Christian Alexander struts and head-bobs his way through a confident set, but there’s no confusion as to who the crowd are here to see. It’s only when the circle is immersed in total darkness that it gets to its feet. A second later, Kevin Abstract is onstage, and the audience let him have it.

He raps ‘BUZZCUT’, the first track off Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, the boyband’s latest offering, released last year. It’s an interesting choice for a gig where most fans will be reminiscing about the group’s entire (read: earlier) discography, but tonight, they’re more than up for it. 

Within seconds, the rest of the band’s performing members are onstage and ready to deliver. The group switches over to the Saturation album trilogy, delivering crowd-pleaser after crowd-pleaser, including ‘STAR’, ‘GOLD’, ‘QUEER’, ‘JUNKY’ and ‘SWEET’. Even the laidback tracks are torn into with decibel-busting urgency, while the group bounces from one side of the stage to the other. Every word comes hot and heavy, as if a single dull moment would be a let-down to fans.

Even when the show does slow down, the audience isn’t allowed to catch its breath. The first respite comes during ‘BLEACH’. The band stop singing, yes, but only because Kevin Abstract is pointing the mic back at the crowd. They return a beautiful choral rendition of the iconic "Who got the feelin’?" refrain, which helped put the band on the map. 

The group finish off the Saturation material by screaming their way through ‘RENTAL’, ‘ZIPPER’ and ‘SISTER’ off ‘SISTER/NATION’. When they’re not running in a million different directions like an ant colony on amphetamines, they stick together on curved seating at the back of the stage. This approach to stagecraft is imbued with the qualities that first made the band great. It shows that they remain cohesive but not monotonous, dependant on each other without being smothering. It’s worth remembering that soon after Saturation III came out, Ameer Vann left the band under the cloud of sexual misconduct allegations. This would have destroyed a lesser band, but here BROCKHAMPTON are years later, bowing out on their own terms. 

After giving ‘1999 WILDFIRE’ the same up-to-eleven treatment, the band moves on to tracks from Iridescence, their first post-Saturation album. “I may forget the lyrics to some of these,” Kevin Abstract admits.

Indeed, he flubs the emotional core of ‘WEIGHT’, in which he relates a phone call from his mum, but it’s not like the crowd are about to turn on him. During the same song, someone in the audience turns round to me and my friend and says he’s going to cry. 

The band ratchet the energy back up with a few more choice Iridescence tracks. How Joba manages to summon the same rage for his verse on ‘J’OUVERT’ live as he does on the recorded album is likely a secret between him and several anger management experts. The energy from the rest of the show proves only too able to equal it, though. 

Material from Ginger and Roadrunner let the audience know that the band are winding down, but not running out of steam. Though acclaimed, the group’s later releases never quite reached the stratospheric heights of the Saturation trilogy. Tonight, the band don’t seem to care: ‘BOY BYE’ and ‘DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY’ are given as much oomph as ‘BLEACH’ and ‘QUEER’. As is the fate for many groups, the earlier stuff seems to be career-defining. That hasn’t stopped BROCKHAMPTON being massively, understandably proud of their later work. 

They finish by going back to their roots with ‘SUMMER’, the concluding track on Saturation II. Of course, they don’t actually finish there, and come back for an electric performance of ‘BOOGIE’. It’s loud and it’s angry, but never forgets to be artistic. It’s perfectly BROCKHAMPTON. 

Once the encore is done, the audience makes the well-worn trek from the O2 Academy to Brixton tube, where more than one pair hug each other goodbye. It’s a remarkably tender scene, reminiscent of the album cover for Ginger. The familiar encore chants of “where are they”, being lobbed at the stage just moments ago, seem to have taken on new meaning at one of BROCKHAMPTON’s final outings. 

Once offstage, the band repeatedly thank the audience. After they’re done, I have no voice left with which to cheer, leaving me just to clap, as if struck dumb.

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More about: BROCKHAMPTON