Machine Gun Kelly
NRG Stadium
March 14, 2023
Were you aware that Colson Baker, better known by his nom de guerre Machine Gun Kelly, was born right here in Houston? Neither did I, and I probably still wouldn’t if not for checking his HLSR page before heading down to NRG to check out his RodeoHouston debut performance last night.
If you’re familiar with his work, you know Kelly got his start as a hip hop artist, famously becoming the only rapper to win amateur night at the Apollo in 2009. Albums and mix tapes followed, along with beefs with the likes of Eminem and G-Eazy. Kelly pivoted to a more straightforward pop rock approach with the release of 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall, which prompted another beef, this one with Corey Taylor of Slipknot.
Dude likes to feud.
So I admit I’ve only heard a few of his songs. So aside from his tendency to switch genres and pick fights, about the only indication I had of what was in store was the email from the HLS&R’s media group containing one portentous line:
Like the resulting show itself, that warning would be a bit of a letdown.
MGK’s entry was, admittedly, more aggro than I expected, with “God save me” drawing a fairly raucous response. And he deserves some kudos for dedicating “Concert for Aliens” to Houston, noting that in spite of the presence of NASA in our fair city, that “aliens are everywhere.”
But when you get down to it, these are pretty dumb songs. For example, the lyrics to “kiss kiss” are pretty much just “kiss kiss the bottle all night” repeated 20 times. Otherwise, it’s play a song about your crazy ex or how fun it is to smoke weed, include a “Jus” Lyons guitar solo, and let the backing tracks carry the rest. Repeat.
Kelly’s stage setup was backstopped by the word “Sellout,” which is simultaneously a reference to his most recent album and an expression that will have almost no relevance to fans who grew up hearing “London Calling” used in a Jaguar commercial.
Which reminds me: we used to have a blog tag here at Rocks Off called “Hey, the Kids Like It,” created (I assume) to acknowledge the inevitability of music reviewers aging out of knowing what’s cool (call it the Abraham Simpson Postulate). If a 30-something like MGK wants to keep singing about “wasting his youth” (“drunk face”) and if his fans react positively to “ay!” and “my best friend’s ex,” songs …considerably enhanced by pre-recorded vocals … well, Roger Daltrey kept saying he hoped he’d die before he got old well into his 60s.
Give Kelly an “E” for effort. A planned stroll across the dirt floor of NRG led to a slight glitch when Kelly’s mic refused to cooperate. But he still engaged with the audience to an extent not entirely hinted at in previous concerts.
An adolescent memory of Kelly’s prompted a rather out-of-tune version of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” proving Kelly’s voice is more reminiscent of Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 than a traditional/accomplished vocalist’s.
The latter part of the show skewed more to MGK’s hip-hop selections, such as “el diablo” (during which he exhorted us to “get our horns up”) and “FLOOR 13.” Both of which were groundbreaking in how they spread live Auto-Tune to the masses.
It was during “papercuts,” one of the show’s closing numbers, when the much-anticipated pyro made its primary appearance. It was … fine? Certainly nothing that Rammstein or James Hetfield would write home about. And sure, closing out with the likes of “Misery Business” and “forget me too” satisfied the faithful, but there’s little about MGK that rings true. His reliance on pre-recorded vocals and posturing like someone ten years younger should raise some flags.
But this is the Rodeo, where sometimes faking sincerity is just as good as the real thing.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
