It’s Wednesday night at Brisbane Riverstage, and Vancouver rapper bbno$ is about to play the biggest show of his career. Originally slated to play the 3000 capacity Fortitude Music Hall, the Brisbane show sold out so fast that the night was quickly upgraded to Riverstage, a venue with triple the capacity – and bbno$ sold that one out too.
Running straight from work to catch the show, I heard rather than saw the bulk of opener Jungle Bobby‘s set, with the roar of the excited crowd carrying across the QUT campus beside Riverstage. The tone was set before I’d even picked up my tickets; this was an audience here for a good time, and both Jungle Bobby and headline act bbno$ more than delivered.
Opening with “it boy”, and accompanied by a exciting backdrop of colourful animations, song lyrics, and – when the time came for “1-800” – VTuber Ironmouse, bbno$ was firing on all cylinders right from the off. His songs are mostly pacey affairs, wrapping up quickly and occasionally descending into some wonderful drum and bass chaos. This is clearly night for partying but it’s still nice to take a break when the likes of “meant to be” slow things down for a moment.
When he wasn’t whipping through tracks at a rate of knots, bbno$ took a few beats to engage with the crowd, which ran the gamut from Millenials (guilty) all the way to families with their Gen Alpha kids. Such is the reach of the rising rapper; sure, the older members of the audience might not get the whole “6 7” thing or be overly enthused about him pulling Pokemon cards on stage (what the hell is a Tinkaton anyway?), but they (read: us) were dancing along all the same – and I know I certainly appreciated the cameo from the Peanut Butter Jelly Time banana!
It’s easy to put the success of the night, and the tour in general, down to bbno$’s undeniable TikTok fame, but to place the onus solely on that feels disingenous. It ignores the fact that Alex Humuchian is also a witty songwriter, an expert at collabs, and a hugely charismatic showman. That he got to showcase all of this at his biggest show to date, right here in Brisbane, feels pretty good.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
bbno$ will wrap up his Australia/New Zealand tour with dates in Auckland and Wellington. All remaining dates are sold out.
Header image – MONTECRISTO (supplied by PR)
