I was there and wish I never left.
“I want more out of my life than this… I want more… I want more”, sang the audience waving arms side to side with Ian Simpson leading the chant for the I’ll Be There Tour. “TONYA”, echoed through the Fillmore from their newest album, Iridescence, topping Billboard 200 list at spot #1.
Self-proclaimed “world’s greatest boy band”, the rap collective consists of 15 members led by creative and founder, Kevin Abstract aka Ian Simpson. From rap to graphic design to photography, the members of the boy band have many talents. The group was originally founded in the small town of San Marcos, Texas in 2015 and now is based in California. The group has been totally self-sufficient in terms of creativity and have released four studio albums in the past three years under recording label RCA. The doors opened at promptly 9:00 pm on Wednesday, October 17th at The Fillmore. Immediately the new hit, “NEW ORLEANS”, on Iridescence, blared through the speakers and microphones with the group’s six members jumping on stage in matching jumpsuits.
The Fillmore was filled with lively excitement. There even was a mosh pit formed at the center. “NEW ORLEANS” was followed by “WEIGHT” starting the night off on an exhilarating note with both songs from the new album. The concert carried on with riveting “J’OUVERT”, “HONEY” and “VIVID” hyping the audience with their high energy songs, wild performance acts and saturated visuals to match. Next came the slower more heartfelt songs like “TONYA” and “SAN MARCOS.” The members lined up on stage and sang these songs with true depth allowing the audience to feel the intimate setting throughout the concert hall. Some older fan favorites came up next to keep the vibes flowing. “SWEET” got the entire place jumping and screaming with strobe lights shining with members like Joba and Matt Champion, singing and screaming their hearts out while running all over the stage. “BLEACH”, one of the most popular songs of the group, had the whole concert hall losing their minds with everyone’s hands in the air singing along.
The members exited the stage with peak excitement and energy left in the Fillmore. So much so, that’s the entire audience stayed demanding an encore screaming, “one more song! One more song!” and “Brockhampton! Brockhampton!” Ten minutes later, Kevin Abstracts voice came through speakers asking, “You all still here?” and the group ran on stage to finish off with the all-time favorite, “BOOGIE.”
I sang my heart out jumping up and down almost the entire concert leaving completely stunned, starstruck, in shock and needing more.