Yelawolf
14th December 2017
Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Doug Peters.
If ever there was an artist that could be called genre-fluid then Yelawolf would be it. Crunk from the south intertwines with bluegrass; hip-hop shakes hands with classic rock while punk and industrial share a joint out the back. He’s the rapper who can write gritty tracks of death and mayhem and then turn around and cough up a club banger with Gucci Mane. You can call him Catfish Billy, or you can call him Yelawolf. But only his Mama calls him Michael. (We can all just pretend that that brief stint of changing his on stage name to M.W.A for a while didn’t happen).
One thing is for certain, Yelawolf has a bit of a love affair going on with New Zealand, tonight making it both his second appearance in the country and in Auckland – Cassette Nine, holla! – this year alone. Logan Campbell Centre is just beginning to swell with bodies, as a steady chant of ‘Yelawolf’ rises up and above the sticky heat to greet the ski mask wearing Franky One Finger as he strides across the stage, middle fingers up for all to see. White lightning bolts and stars are emblazoned on the black back drop curtain, the words Slumerican across the DJ desk, and as Grant Benziger with his two long braids and bandana covered face picks up his guitar and Keegan Kelly aka Stix n Bones seats himself behind his skins; all hell breaks loose as the fans see Yelawolf approach the mic stand.
‘Empty Bottles’ instantly has the fans singing along to the poetic styled chorus while his short bursts of staccato rapping hypes them up even further. “Auckland, Wellington said they were louder than you! I don’t fuckin’ believe it, put your fuckin’ arms in the air!” The Auckland vs Wellington in joke would be one that Yelawolf would keep running throughout the night, his obvious tongue in cheek teasing entertaining the crowd and slightly less clichéd than the typical Aus vs NZ commentary often delivered by most artists.
By the time the second track of the night drops, the crowd appears to have melded together as one giant body of flesh with a thousand waving arms. Whether it be insanely jumping up and down to the jacked-up ‘Push ‘Em’ or swaying to something a little more ballad style (yet another example of Yelawolfs musical diversity) they do it as one. Benziger has a miscellany all of his own it would appear as the black clad wearing guitarist moves seamlessly from killa banjo playing – a nod to Deliverance sneaking in there – to acoustic with a few emotive electric guitar solos thrown in for good measure. Yelawolf in a sleeveless denim vest, long white tassels dangling down paced the stage continuously; his red bandana tied around the top of his head. Whether it was twirling the mic stand over his shoulder or stomping out to the edge of the stage to lean out over the crowd he did it with a sense of purpose.
Hitting the fans with track after track he held them fast and tight; from the infectious hook of ‘Outer Space’ from his 2015 Love Story album through to the industrial undertones of ‘Growin Up In The Gutter’ (check out the short film to that track for a bit of a head trip) and back again with the bro-love inducing ‘Best Friend’. Connecting with his fans at every possible opportunity, Yelawolfs topics of conversation ranged from the current presidency in the USA “Fuck Trump, and fuck Hilary Clinton too” to just how many “beautiful people” were in the crowd tonight, especially the ladies (cue impassioned screams of delight). But it wasn’t long after the pop hooks of his track ‘Heart Break’ that Yelawolf turned his attention on security; berating them for killing the continual attempts at crowd surfing and shoulder riding and “spraying them like cats” with their hand held pressure sprayers. “Guys chill out, I came a long way to be here, I don’t need to be policed!” Moving on, chants of ‘Fuck That Shit’ bookended the popular ‘Pop The Trunk’ before Yelawolf introduced a new track off his latest album Trial By Fire; ‘Get Mine’ (Engine #9) separating the hardcore fans out from the pack.
One thing that can be said for Yelawolf is that the love he has for his Mama is solid as he tells the crowd how proud she is of him but how she also said “I don’t understand a word you’re saying”. So he wrote a song just for her, ‘American You’ proving not only that Yelawolf can sing as well as rap but that he can write ‘Fuck You’ into even the nicest sounding song. Taking it out on “Til it’s Gone’ Yelawolf and crew disappeared for a few minutes, allowing the audience that chance to show their love by chanting his name in unison.
Upon his return, Yelawolf spent a few minutes talking about his association with the Three 6 Mafia and Juicy J, his pride at having both Travis Barker and Juicy J (not to mention Flea from RHCP) all appearing on one track obvious to all. A quick rendition of ‘Daddy’s Lambo’ followed by a chant of “Up in the club, don’t give a fuck” (Hard White, Up In The Club) – Yelawolfs way of singling out the fans who have been in for the long ride – and it’s down to the last track of the night. What better way to end it than with the outright mental as fuck paced track ‘Punk’, and a split down the middle where the fans can “battle it out like 300”; Yelawolf telling the crowd to “let the boys be boys and the girls be boys too”; Franky One Finger attempting to get in on the action with a boogie board, before giving up and crowd surfing on his back instead.
Yelawolf; boy can do no wrong
Were you there at Logan Campbell Centre for this slumerican hip-hop masterpiece? Or have you seen Yelawolf perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Empty Bottles
- Catfish Billy
- Push ‘Em
- Billy Crystal
- Outer Space
- Growin’ Up In The Gutter
- Best Friend
- Johnny Cash
- Devil In My Veins
- Tennessee Love
- Heart Break
- Pop The Trunk
- Get Mine (Engine #9)
- Let’s Roll
- American You
- Til It’s Gone
- Daddy’s Lambo [encore]
- Punk [encore]
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