Blackbear
22nd November 2017
The Studio, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Courtney Newbold. Photography by Jordan M Vickers.
As I joined the line outside the Studio, I noticed one thing: Blackbear’s fans were an excellent amalgamation of regular hip-hop/R&B fans and excellently dyed/pierced and tatted kids that looked like they are from the post-hardcore scene. Which is unsurprising when you consider Blackbear’s origins, a fan of Alkaline Trio and Blink 182. So here’s my favourite thing about Blackbear, I would never have expected that voice to come from that body. The beautifully tattooed exterior harboured an equally beautiful and well-disciplined voice incredibly suited to hip hop/R & B.
From the start of the night, he held the crowd, walking onstage smoking a cigarette, decorated denim jacket. A charismatic performer, with enough confidence, energy and musical ability to pull the crowd from the first song. I saw a frontman, singer, a songwriter and a producer, a master of his own stage show.
Blackbear’s vocal ability really shone throughout the performance. A lot of vocalists won’t hit the high notes live, Blackbear still took those harmonies through to the live performance, as well as the riffs, not a single note omitted. We also saw him jumping around throughout the performance with a stable vocal, impressively, no wavering. Added to that was a soundie who knew what they were doing in terms of vocal effects, the live effects matched the recordings in the exact right places.
You could tell Blackbear loves what he does and does it well. We saw his many smiles throughout the set, and countless selfies on fans phones as he picked them up, true love for the fans in the social media age.
Towards the end of the set, we heard slightly aggressive more rap like vocal tone, which was an excellent contrast to the sweet R&B voice we heard throughout the set. The backing band consisted of drums, a synth/keys player, bassist and an excellent addition: a saxophonist, who went into the crowd at one point. The songs were arranged for the live setting well, incorporating live instrument playing as much as possible, which always adds to a show.
What I loved, was that we saw Blackbear playing keyboard and guitar in the set, a testament to his skills as a musician. The guitar was aesthetically pleasing too, white with a bunch of drawings in black vivid marker. The shows visuals on the back screen were an addition to an excellently produced show, we saw clips of Blackbear himself, as psychedelic colour movement and computer text art.
Do Re Mi, Blackbear’s most popular single, had the crowd amped and singing along, as he put the excellently pink microphone into the crowd. IDFC was another crowd favourite, Blackbear jumped into the crowd for this song, expressing a stage presence probably reminiscent of his origins in an indie/punk band.
The encore was Blackbear’s own arrangement of All Star by Smashmouth, which kept the vocal melody but added some darker synths and trap drums. This was absolutely impressive.
Catchy riffs about exes on top of trap beats with synth lines, Blackbear proved himself with a performance to match his unique place in Hip-hop/R&B. The audience left satisfied, calling his name, his real name, Mathew.
Blackbear:
Editors Note: Unfortunately, despite prior approval being sought and granted to shoot this show Jordan found himself ejected from the photo pit three minutes before Blackbear was to take the stage. Due to the layout of the venue and the late stage in which he was removed from the pit he was unable to get close enough to the action to take any images.
Chase Atlantic:
Were you there at The Studio for this high energy RnB gig? Or have you seen Blackbear perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
