The masses gathered outside of Houston’s Toyota Center on June 10, all you could see was a sea of pink and plaid, punk-dressed fans who came out to support the rapper who’s breaking out of the box to take over the pop-punk genre, Machine Gun Kelly. On tour in support of his latest record, Mainstream Sellout, Kelly, also known as MGK, brought along budding artists Iann Dior and Blackbear. Starting his tour just two nights before, in Austin, Houston was the second stop for the world-wide Mainstream Sellout Tour.
Both opening acts had great sets with talented bands performing along side them, and while the openers did an amazing job, nothing could compare to the entrance MGK made. As the lights dimmed an intro video began to play. You could see a pilot seeming to fly Machine Gun Kelly into the arena, a giant helicopter ran above the crowd searching for him. The search light on the helicopter finally revealed a giant box at the back of the arena and lowered down a rope ladder for Kelly to climb up. He swung over the crowd as the aircraft transported him to the main stage while he sang his first two songs. It was an amazing entrance to a phenomenal show.
“Here’s a little fact a lot of people don’t know. I was born here in Houston!” MGK mentioned to the
crowd a few songs into his performance.
The stage layout was super trippy, slanted at a sharp angle with his band scattered about, it was made to play with the audiences perception. The stage also had an elevated platform where he was raised and was able to show off his guitar playing while performing tracks from both of his pop-punk albums. But he didn’t forget to remind the audience of his other passion playing songs off his rap albums showing us lyricism and fast flow.
Kelly surprised fans and played a new song that was released that same day! “More then Life” and had a few songs he dedicated to some people, like “Lonely” who he dedicated to his dad. He also took the time to introduce his new guitarist, internet sensation Sophie Lloyd, that night who played an incredible solo showcasing her skills. At one point towards the end of the night, he even jumped into the crowd and ran across the floor, giving a few of his luckier fans an up-close and personal experience.
MGK’s set was filled with great pyrotechnics with flames so big, you could feel the waves of heat
radiating from the flames. His show was also filled with skits in between songs, with large
animatronic characters. The final skit introduced a character, representing “The Internet” in
which MGK used to showcase his beflief of not letting “The Internet” of “Haters” get to him. An
idea he is known to express, considering the much criticism he received during his genre
change up. Sending an inspiring message also to his fans to not let people’s ideas affect a
person and stop them from chasing one’s dreams.
MGK ended his set list with tracks he had that featured guest verses from his opening artist,
bringing them out to perform the hit tracks alongside him.
If you ever get the chance to see Machine Gun Kelly, you can expect a show filled with great
crowd interaction and amazing visuals, it’s definitely an experience filled with fun that’s worth
checking out.
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