I’m covered in sweat (both mine and strangers) and beer (both mine and strangers), and a circle pit that envelopes half of the crowd at Lowlands’ Bravo stage has opened up; which can only mean one thing, Brockhampton have just walked on stage. Within seconds of the megalithic opening riff to ‘1998 Truman’ blasting through the tent, thousands of punters had turned into a writhing mosh, each person screaming every single word back at the self-proclaimed “best boyband in the world”. Here’s what went down at Brockhampton’s euphoric Lowlands show, in pictures.
1998 Truman
Bounding onstage, Brockhampton launched straight into the colossal ‘1998 TRUMAN’. Each of the groups raps are blistering, with the energy well and truly upped, and the audience lapping up instructions to open the pit.
Hands in the air
“Put your hands in the air like you’re riding a rollercoaster” demanded the group’s Svengali member Kevin Abstract; and the army of revellers were only too pleased to oblige.
Open the pits
Blitzing through an hour long set of their blistering tunes, the group rapidly hop between older hits like ‘GUMMY’ and ‘ZIPPER’, before diving straight into their latest offering total earworm ‘1997 DIANA’.
“Everyone want to keep having fun?”
“Everyone want to keep having fun?” asked Kevin, even though he clearly already knew the answer. As the the whirring synth riff of ‘SWEET’ drops, once again the swarming moshpits open and thousands of the army who’ve managed to cram into Lowlands’ Bravo stage jump in.
Stripping it back
However in between the raucous, pop-tinged bangers and on stage posturing, came one of the sets highlights, ‘FACE’. Here Brockhampton fully strip it back, with the members taking it in turns to be in the spotlight, whilst the others sit at the back of the stage. Whilst the rest of the set is endless, if slightly rehearsed, fun, ‘FACE’ shows why Brockhampton are the most hotly tipped band in the world: because they’re breathtakingly talented. Once a group of lads who met on a Kanye West fan forum, now they’re masters of their craft. As Joba’s heart wrenching vocals cut across the bubbling production in the final chorus, it wasn’t just the audience who were impressed, as fellow band mates congratulated him on the performance of a life time. Looking for the festival moment of the year? This might just have been it.
The tunes keep coming
The audience still reeling from ‘Face’, Brockhampton barely let them take a breath before launching into the fearsome ‘SISTER/NATION’. And then there’s a slight stage change, as a single microphone is set up and bearface whips out the guitar for the sweet sounds of ‘SUMMER’. This is a set that will give you musical whiplash as it rapidly hops between genres; but it’s this fearless attitude to sound that make the band such a joy to watch live.
“We’re the biggest boyband in the world”
And in a flash, it was over. Finishing with the one-two punch of ‘1999 WILDFIRE’ and the gargantuan ‘BOOGIE’, Kevin took a second to survey the crowd before sauntering off stage. “Thanks so much, we’re the biggest boyband in the world Brockhampton” he proclaimed; and after that performance, who are we to disagree?
