The Kid LAROI is one the biggest superstars in the world right now, and there’s no denying that fact. With two ARIA Music Aways, five Billboard Music Awards, an iHeartradio Music Award, and two Grammy Award nominations under his belt, his success has become a truly remarkable story of persistence and hard work from a very young age.
Kicking off his sold out debut headline tour in his home country of Australia, the 18 year old rapper, singer, and songwriter, is showing off his success in a glitzy and empowering manner. While he is travelling the country in a private jet, and playing arenas nationwide, he is making sure he is delivering an unforgettable show that matches the hype he’s garnered. Hitting up the Riverstage in Brisbane for two nights of passionate singalong’s, the crowd brought a level of pandemonium that I’ve only seen for artists like Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Harry Styles and Halsey in the past. It’s that moment where you look around and notice that every single person is singing word-for-word without missing a beat, and has a giant smile on their face that you know is going to stay on their face for the next day.
With a theatrical video introduction introducing the concept of “the end of the world”, The Kid LAROI ran onto the stage and up the big white stair structure in the middle for the explosive opener ‘Let Her Go’. With tracks like ‘Diva’, ‘GO’, ‘TELL ME WHY’ and my personal favourite ‘PIKACHU’ sprinkled through the first half of the set, he immediately had the energy at an all-time-high, especially as he rolled into one of the nights biggest highlights, ‘F*CK YOU, GOODBYE’. For the song he even asked a girl in the crowd the name of her ex before dedicating it to her and getting the crowd to scream “fuck you John”.
With the rescheduling of this show from Monday to Wednesday due to falling sick with influenza, he was now clashing with the State Of Origin. Taking to an Instagram poll asking if the crowd wanted a live feed of the game during the show, he was true to his word and had regular updates of the game popping up on the big LED screens throughout the 50 minute show. Playfully toying with the crowd that he was a Blues supporter he pre-maturely proclaimed “I know I’m in Queensland, but I’m from New South Wales, and we are about to fuck you up”. Unfortunately for him the Blues did not win that match.
Steering back into the setlist he played his debut single ‘Blessings’ as a special request from some fans that attended the soundcheck earlier that day. As he crept towards the end of the show all of the hits emerged with Thousand Miles’, ‘SO DONE’, ‘ALWAYS DO’ and ‘Stay’ being those goosebump worthy singalong’s you knew they’d be. After walking off stage, the crowd started immediately chanting for him to come back, and he obviously returned to play the global smash hit ‘WITHOUT YOU’ while everyone screamed along and held their phone lights up.
The Kid LAROI IS a superstar, and this show cemented that status. While it was just him and a DJ onstage, his presence along with the theatrical visuals, incredible lighting rig, and the giant moving staircases made the show constantly feel large. There was always something to look at, and the setlist was punchy and carefully crafted to keep the energy at an all-time-high.