Drake, Auckland NZ, 2017

Drake

3rd November 2017
Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Doug Peters.

“I’ve been sitting on my couch in my motherfucking apartment, waiting, counting down the days til I get to Auckland to see your faces for two years!” One thing that could certainly be said for Drake on the first night of his New Zealand leg of the ‘Boy Meets World Tour’ is that he knows how to work a crowd.

Arguably one of the world’s biggest stars, Drake rolled into town last night to perform one of the biggest centre stage shows seen at the arena since Metallica’s 2010 World Magnetic tour. Dressed in their best clubbing clothes (hell there were even three young men in suits and ties that later caught the eye of Drake himself) the mainly young adult crowd flooded through the doors hyped and ready to mingle; with the fans in the seated sections just as amped. Last here in 2015 the Canadian born rapper formally known as Aubrey Drake Graham certainly now has a far bigger reputation and pulling power (the first show selling out in minutes) which has grown expediently since he decided to ditch his acting career on the teen drama series Degrassi and pursue a music career instead, releasing his mixtape entitled Room For Improvement back in 2006.

After what seemed like an eternity the restless crowd screamed like there was no tomorrow when the lights finally dropped and dry ice began to bubble forth from the floor of the stage. Rising up through the centre like a revered deity Drake had arrived, dressed simply in black track pants with a thick red stripe down the centre of the left leg and tshirt he immediately got down to business hitting the crowd with ‘Free Smoke’, ‘Trophies’ and ‘Started From The Bottom’ in quick succession while working all the space available to him. This is one hell of a slick production, with hundreds of individual white globes suspended from the ceiling changing colour in time to the beat or having coloured laser lights bounced off them. Even the circular stage itself features bridges that protrude from each side whose floor panels illuminate. The theatrics begin early with pyrotechnics shooting from the ceiling above and ending in a shower of sparks.

Not to muck around the artist who holds the records for highest streaming on both Spotify and Apple music hits the crowd with rapid fire segments of his tracks, intermingled with songs from other famous friends such as DJ Khaled and Big Sean that Drake himself has had a hand in one way or another. This is a pure display of prowess, Drake firmly staking his claim as a genuine hip-hop artist who can spit lyrics with the best, elevating himself above the shell of being just another pop icon. However it is those pop tunes though that elicit some of the biggest audience reactions tonight and Drake is not so naïve to ignore this; timing ‘Hotline Bling’ with his second rise from the middle of the stage (reappearing in a fresh tshirt and hoodie) with the reveal of one of the biggest visual components of his stage show the ‘dropping’ of those aforementioned globes. Swiftly they fell from the ceiling, each one suspended on a singular wire; each one glowing a mixture of dusky pink and lilac, smoothly pogoing up and down as Drake performed some of those now infamous dance moves around the stage as he lamented the girl that used to call him on his cell phone.

For sheer stage design alone, Drakes’ design team deserves to take home the innovation award as the globes continue throughout the majority of the night to move in beautifully timed perfection, creating solid shapes, wave patterns and at one point tilting on such sharp angles they almost gave you a touch of sea sickness. Couple this with the led side screens framing the stage itself, laser lights semaphoring patterns throughout the room and carefully placed spotlights whose almost solid beams create hash tag patterns across the floor and you have the recipe for how to successfully wow your fans. At this point you don’t even need to be a fan to be impressed by this hypnotic visual overload, you just need to sit back and enjoy. But where Drake really shines – in the eyes of the fans certainly – is with the attention he showers them; the adoration being poured over them as thick as treacle as at one point he spends a slightly unbearable amount of time moving from each section of the audience acknowledging t-shirts and Canadian flags being held high. “I see you impressing me with those stripes, I see you baby”; it was at this point that the show lost a little of its momentum, however the fans were lapping it up, desperately jumping up and down or holding their clothing out from their bodies in the hopes that Drake would single them out too for some vocal love.

Impressively Drake holds the stage the entire night predominantly by himself; there are no support crews in the form of other rappers (his DJ tucked away within one of the pits side of stage and out of view). Instead Drake opted simply for two dancers (Aaliyah and Toya) who ascended through small covers situated at the end of the aforementioned bridges. Even then they were relegated to the shadows, silhouetted figures that complimented but never drew attention away from the spotlighted star himself. Drake handing the spotlight over only once as he instigated a dance off between the two leotard and cut off hoodied dancers – Toya taking it out with crowd votes for her big and bold in your face moves.

Nearing close to the two hour mark Drake has hit the crowd with close to forty (yes forty) different tracks; Gucci Manes’ ‘Both’ proving popular as the room is lit with smoky greens and a whiff of a certain illicit substance wafts through the crowd. Fireworks have peppered the stage, ricocheting from floor to ceiling as Drake deftly foot works his way around the perimeter – the crowd going wild at every pop and shower of sparks. There would be no encore as such but as Drake descends into the floor cavity one last time those led side panels go into overdrive with their ever increasing in speed strobe patterns as dry ice floods the stage in bountiful thick billows. A more solid white shape can be seen slowly unfolding and expanding deep within the smoke, and as it takes shape it reveals itself to be a giant white globe – the mothership it would seem of all its smaller offspring hanging from the ceiling above. Projections instantly turn it into a living orb of swirling smoky patterns that begin in dark tones and slowly progress into deep reds and bright yellows; Drake, emerging from the far end of the stage in silver pants makes his way around the giant sphere several times spitting out the last tracks of the evening.

Shout outs to New Zealand’s own Lorde (who according to Drake is here in the audience tonight) and demands for ‘mosh pit gangs’ lead the show into the final track for the evening; Drake morphing the lyrics of ‘Legend’ into a serenade for each section of the audience but not before reminding us that here in New Zealand we got it going on with all races from all places showing each other the love tonight. “Tonight solidified that no matter where I’m at, no matter where I go; I will always for this lifetime find my way back to motherfucking  Auckland, New Zealand, because I love you!”

Judging by the audience reaction – it would seem that New Zealand loves Drake too.

Were you there at Spark Arena for this mind blowing high production value hip hop show? Or have you seen Drake perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Setlist

1. Free Smoke
2. Trophies [Young Money]
3. Started From The Bottom
4. Headlines
5. HYFR (Hell Ya Fucking Right)
6. 0 To 100 / The Catch Up
7. Worst Behaviour
8. We Made It
9. Blessings [Big Sean]
10. All Me
11. Pop That [French Montana]
12. Over
13. I’m On One [DJ Khaled]
14. Up All Night
15. Crew Love
16. Hotline Bling
17. Hold On, We’re Going Home
18. Passion Fruit
19. The Motto
20. For Free [DJ Khaled]
21. My Way [Fetty Wap]
22. Both [Gucci Mane]
23. Portland
24. Jumpman
25. Work [Rihanna]
26. Too Good
27. Blem
28. Controlla
29. One Dance
30. KMT (Kiss My Teeth)
31. Pop Style
32. Gylachester
33. Know Yourself
34. Energy
35. Fake Love
36. Legend

If you enjoyed this content, please consider donating towards the running of Ambient Light, covering expenses and allowing us to expand the coverage you love by visiting our PressPatron page.