August Alsina
13th April 2018
Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review & Photography by Sarah Kidd.
Following a stunning performance at London’s Indigo at the O2, anticipation was high for August Alsina’s first live performance in Auckland, New Zealand last night.
With Melbourne born DJ Noiz setting the scene with a banging mix of old and new (Montell Jordan’s ‘This Is How We Do It’ always a big hitter), it was first the turn of Southern California native Kennyon Brown and Auckland’s own Donell Lewis to get the crowd amped with tracks from both their own solo work and their collaborative debut album Legooo released late last year. Expertly working the stage and whipping the crowd into a frenzy the duo supported by DJ Noiz soon had the crowd bouncing, both their lyrics and vocal stylings crisp and clean.
Samoan born Lewis who was awarded the Phillip Fuemana Award for Most Promising Pacific Artist back in 2015 added his own brand of pacific flavour to the mix, tracks such as ‘Show No Love’ and ‘For My Baby’ – produced by DJ Noiz himself – pulling the crowd’s full attention towards the stage. Of course the duo like to have a little fun as well, throwing in some popular old school tracks such as ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine and Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’ which encouraged the fans to hold their drinks high in the air as they immersed themselves in the amatory beats.
As the fan numbers steadily built, more and more bodies pushed up against the barrier, phones at the ready to ensure that those first few precious moments of Alsina’s appearance were caught in preparation for the inevitable social media updates. Current club bangers were pumped out; tracks such as Drake’s ‘God’s Plan’ seeing the crowd sing along loudly to each and every line, as the stage crew quickly rearranged equipment for Alsina’s appearance.
Soon enough the spotlights burst into life, revealing Alsina standing atop a small stage riser, his eyes shaded by a pair of white sunglasses, a Gucci headband framing his face. As the predominantly female crowd erupted in screams, from the shadows emerged two dancers, their long legs sheathed in fish net stockings. Their faces hidden by jet black hoodies they stood silently on either side of Alsina, outlining him perfectly before slowly unzipping and revealing stunning leather bustiers. As Alsina began with his verse from the Kevin Gates track ‘I Don’t Get Tired’ his dancers sprang into action, their bodies winding and grinding with the proficiency of the world class status they obviously were, having accompanied Alsina on his tour for a number of months.
However it could not be denied that the only thing that eclipsed their impressive dance moves was Alsina’s own vocals. Smooth, rich and all encompassing, Alsina belted out the lyrics with ease, his voice truly something quite incredible to hear. At only the tender age of twenty-five, Alsina has already made quite the name for himself, often featuring with and on many big name artists tracks. With two studio albums, one EP and five mixtapes – not to mention over a dozen singles – under his belt, Alsina has already built up quite a back catalogue of work. However having only released four new singles since his last album This Thing Called Life back in 2015, the question on many fan’s lips is when will he drop his latest? This did not seem to bother his New Zealand fans one iota though, their eager declarations of adoration continuing as Alsina went back in time, dropping ‘Work’ from his mixtape The Product 2 on the appreciative audience.
Remaining atop of the riser, Alsina leisurely began to remove his luxurious overcoat, the fairer sex perched along the barrier losing their collective minds as he revealed a mesh shirt through which his striking full body tattoos showed through. Stepping down he worked the stage, pausing for long periods of time on the corners to allow the fans to snap multiple pics and videos of him as he crooned. With songs such as ‘Get Ya Money’, ‘Make It Home’ Alsina built up the love, but when he dropped the DJ Khaled track ‘Hold You Down’ he undeniably proved exactly why he is a much sought after artist with an ever growing fan base. Speaking to the ladies in the crowd he enquired as to who had had their hair and nails done specifically for the show, upon hearing hundreds of women roar he flashed a show stopping smile “I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it” he emphatically told them, continuing on to commend all of them for wearing their heels or coming comfortable “I love it all!”
This is an artist who requires no fancy effects or gimmicks, accompanied only by his official DJ, DJ Era and of course those stunning dancers who punctuated his set throughout the night – at one point emerging in gorgeous sparkling silver bustiers and black satin robes – Alsina easily held his own, songs such as ‘Right There’ and the popular ‘No Love’ [feat. Nicki Minaj] ensuring that he held the fans attention until the very end; his penultimate track ‘I Luv This Shit’ driving the fans wild and hammering home the fact that Alsina isn’t going anywhere just yet.
Almost causing a mass fainting, Alsina jumped down into the pit to get up and close and personal with his fans, asking them to go hard as he filmed them, “I like to document my experiences”. Returning to stage he once again humbly thanked his New Zealand fans for coming out to see him before finishing as he began – singing the chorus from ‘I Don’t Get Tired’.
Both a powerful and compelling artist, count on August Alsina to be in the spotlight again very damn soon.
Were you there at The Logan Campbell Centre for this magnificent RnB and Hip Hop gig? Or have you seen August Alsina perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
