Last night was cold and wet, but that didn’t stop people turning out for Denzel Curry’s first show of his two Auckland shows. There were no set times posted, so by the time doors opened, the line stretched down the road.
The crowd had packed in and the first act, who was also not publicized, took the stage. DJ duo Sweet Mix Kids took the stage donning black masks. They played a good mix of tracks to get this particular crowd hyped. This mix included artists such as Kendrick Lamar. They also included their own tracks, finishing the set with a new track. Sweet Mix Kids vibed along to the music just as hard as the crowd and even jumped on the mic to ensure the crowd really was ready for Denzel.
What I liked was that the crowd really didn’t have to wait long until Denzel took the stage. The backing screen and DJ set lit up as the main lights went out. Denzel Curry’s DJ took the stage before Denzel himself came bursting out (literally) with ‘Ricky’, a track off his new album ZUU. The way he kicked off his set literally set the bar for the night because even though a couple of tracks were a bit slower, Denzel had energy to burn.
Denzel was vibing hard to his own tracks and the crowd fed off it. The crowd was a squashed and sweaty mosh pit. Security even had to give water to those in front who seemed to struggle a bit to breathe. In saying that he clearly noticed the crowd, pointing out a guy in the audience wearing a beanie “That’s some OG fan shit”.
I couldn’t tell you every song that he played because honestly the set was so fast-paced that it really didn’t matter as it was just continuous hype and moshing. Some tracks were Speedboat, wish, shake 88, ultimate and black wounds. The energy level from both him and the crowd was electric!
There was quite a bit of crowd participation with people chanting words, clapping and even putting X’s up for XXXtentacion. I feel like sometimes with these shows there can be a bad balance of backing track and live but this was A LOT of live vocals. He even made sure the crowd knew that by killing the music and finishing the track ‘Clout Cobain’.
Before Denzel finished his set he jumped down to the barrier to hug and high-five everyone. The end of his set was quite abrupt and it almost felt like he was going to do an encore but he didn’t.
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IT WAS ONE HELL OF A SHOW!
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