Machine Gun Kelly aka MGK was firstly known as a rapper but he made a major turn in is young career in 2019. Goodbye rap. Hello pop-punk. You can like or not the person but you can’t say his pop-punk effort is a failure. In about 3 years, he became an ambassador of the pop-punk revival and can in 2022 play his biggest shows to date!
Wednesday 21 September, thousands of people are on the way to the Palais 12. Some emo, some pop-punk fans old and new-school, some rap fans and everything in between. Just on the way to the venue, we can see MGK succeed to make a massive change in his music, bring a lot of new fans but still keep the old ones. You need that to fill-in an arena like the Palais 12, even not in its full configuration. And to confirm his spot in the top 10 of shows we announced you couldn’t miss this Fall!
Sadly for us, we missed the set from 44 Panthom and just saw the last songs from Iann Dior. Not enough to have a decent opinion about him but the venue is already really busy but in the meantime feels cold. Everybody are here to MGK and no one else… or maybe Megan Fox? Who knows. The actress married since a couple of months with the American rapper/rocker is maybe around.
Like many bands nowadays, MGK choose wisely the last song played in the venue before the show started. And he chose the best one possible: Welcome To The Black Parade from My Chemical Romance! From the beginning of the show, MGK proved us he brought the biggest production possible to confirm his status of arena-size live act: by arriving attached to a helicopter! Yes, the helicopter didn’t move. Yes, he came from the side of the stage the climb the rope attached to his helicopter. But he isn’t Johnny Hallyday either!
MGK is a killer songwritter and almost all the songs on the set-list sound like a hit. But after every hit we think it’s gonna be an highlight of the evening, another one arrive and it makes us forget the previous one. But they all have one thing in common: everybody knows every song until his last lyric!
The pop-punk stuff from his last 2 albums take obviously the major part of the set-list but he still let some place for his rap period: the duo Roll The Window Up + El Diablo sound powerful as f*ck, helped by fire and a full band behind him! In these conditions, we wouldn’t regret more stuff from his first albums.
The first highlight of the show came very quickly with Maybe coming on third song. The original recorded with Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon is one of his many successful singles featuring a successful guest! As he got many on his songs (BMTH, Willow, Yungblud, Lil Wayne, Blackbear, Glaive, etc.), we were a bit afraid of it would sound live. Well, it was not a problem at all as the whole audience was singing! During I Think I’m Okay, it wasn’t a issue to put the backing track with Yungblud‘s voice; same during Maybe with Bring Me The Horizon; same during Emo Girl with Willow, etc.
One of our personal moment was definitely the combo Title Track + Kiss Kiss + Bloody Valentine. Masterpiece after masterpiece and some of his biggest songs to date. The whole venue went crazy, so were we! The same happen during Forget Me Too. And last but not least, he finished this killer show with Twin Flame dedicated to his wife Megan Fox. A beautiful loving song played in 2 times: the soft part to start with just Colson Baker aka Machine Gun Kelly aka MGK singing and playing guitar, followed during the second part by his whole band and fireworks everywhere! The last perfect note to end a magical evening.
We don’t want to compare him yet to pop-punk / punk-rock legends like Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Blink 182 and all the other acts from the When We Were Young Festival (2022 or 2023 versions) but we can’t deny that his best songs are not as good as theirs. He wouldn’t be playing at the Palais 12 if it was not the case!
Set-list: Born With Horns, God Save Me, Maybe, Concert For Aliens, Drunk Face, Fake Love Don’t Last, Drug Dealer, Ay, Don’t Sleep Repeat, More Than Life, Die In California, Floor 13, Papercuts, Title Track, Kiss Kiss, Bloody Valentine, Roll The Windows Up, El Diablo, WWIII, WW4, Emo Girl, Glass House, Lonely, I Think I’m Okay, Meddley, Forget Me Too, Make Up Sex, My Ex’s Best Friend, Twin Flame.
During 90 minutes, Machine Gun Kelly confirmed in front of his Belgian fans his new status of rock-star. His attitude outside of the stage doesn’t always look the best but when he’s on stage, he delivers the best show as possible and tonight was a successful proof of that! Now, we can’t wait to see him confirm it on a festival field!