Review: Post Malone at Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, May 7, 2019

“I’m here to play you the musical stylings of Post Malone and get fucked up while we do it.”

Posty’s popularity could only be described as rabid. From literally billions of streams, broken chart records, to multi-Platinum singles, and a track on the Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse soundtrack (a movie that has made about US$375 million), Post Malone in a music industry behemoth.

If you weren’t aware of just how gargantuan his career has come, you’d only need to take a cursory glance at his stage show. The minimalist set featured two LED screens, a catwalk stage and a floating light display which floated above.

You see, Posty doesn’t need a full band or hype men to fill 10 arenas across Australia. Without a crutch in sight, it was his voice and his West Coast-indebted music that made half the crowd in Sydney either dress up as him, wear his merch, or try to out-volume him with their own versions of his songs.

Perhaps in a nod to the profitable Spider-Man film which helped send ‘Sunflower’ to the top of the charts the world over, his outfit featured large tarantulas all over it. But perhaps it’s because Austin Richard Post, at his heart, is a dark-streaked troubadour here to make you cry-dance.

Before ‘Wow.’, he said, ‘This next song is about going to a cool party and everybody’s really cool, and you pull-up and you’re just like. ‘wow’.”

Following the paralysingly special ‘I Fall Apart’, Posty asked if anyone in the crowd smoked weed and then proceeded to light up a erm, thick rollie.

Post Malone picked up his acoustic guitar twice during his set. Once for ‘Stay’, when he stuck his lit cigarette between two strings at the headstock, and again after ‘Rockstar’ when he dragged the guitar from the very back of the long stage only to smash and stamp it to pieces.

Australia’s favourite Texan closed out his set with a heartfelt and expletive-filled speech about self-belief and personal freedom.

“Do whatever makes you happy because you’re the fucking shit,” he yelled from the tip of the catwalk.

Post Malone’s ascent may look like an overnight success for those who just read the headlines. And you’d be forgiven for thinking as much; beerbongs & bentleys clocked over 78.7 million streams on release day after all. But as he told the sold-out arena last night, in truth he was warned he’d never find success and never tour overseas.

“You know eventually I moved out to LA, and I made ‘White Iverson’ and my life changed overnight and all my dreams came through,” he said onstage.

“You know when I made ‘White Iverson’ there was a lot of people that wanted to fucking talk down to me, talk shit to me, tell me that I wasn’t going to be shit, call me every fucking name under the sun. They said I wish you’d die in fucking plane crash and that I’m a fucking dog that needs to be put down, and I’m a one-hit wonder. All that fucking bullshit.

“[They said] we’d never go fucking gold, we’d never go fucking Platinum, we’d never go fucking Diamond, we’d never play in Sydney three nights in a fucking row!” he screams.

“That’s fucking A-Okay man. Because I see those same motherfuckers that were saying that shit and now I say Congratu-fucking-lations!

“Sydney, this is Posty’s way of encouraging y’all,” he added. “Do whatever the fuck you want because you’re the fucking shit. Live your fucking life. Live your dream. Live your truth. Do everything you want to in life because you’re the fucking shit, and no one can stop you. Play the fucking shit.”

His response to the detractors, to the naysayers and the belittlers, was expressed so perfectly with his final song, breakout smash ‘Congratulations’.

Watch the video for ‘Congratulations’ below: