Machine Gun Kelly in Brooklyn delivers a wild Barclays Center show with towering stage design, fan moments, dance breaks, and career-spanning anthems on his Lost Americana Tour.
The show starts even before MGK hits the stage. The production value of this stage design blew my mind. Taking up the majority of the floor is a massive sculpture of the Statue of Liberty, though in MGK’s rendition, a few details differ from the original. This Lady Liberty swaps her iconic torch for a lit cigarette held at over 40 feet tall, along with glowing eyes and three noserings to match the singer’s own face jewelry.
The show begins with a curtain drop as the intro to “Outlaw Overture”, track one of the Lost Americana album, rings out across the arena. MGK rises up on a platform inside of the Statue of Liberty’s open mouth. A custom Marlboro Cigarette-esque electric guitar hangs overhead and at this point is supposed to lower down into the singer’s hands, but at this Brooklyn show, that did not happen. MGK started singing and quickly realized that his guitar was stuck mid-air so he stopped singing while a spare was brought to him, and then he started the song from the beginning. During a musical interlude in the song, MGK noted “Look at that technical issue! My guitar was supposed to be here but.. Fuck it.” That guitar hung in the middle of the stage for 15 songs until the crew got it down.
Between songs MGK let the crowd know “I dreamed of playing Barclays Center and it’s finally happening tonight…My friend Pete (Davidson) lives like a block away from here. I was just sitting on his porch like man, I really can’t wait to play that place that I’m looking at and that place is here tonight.” During the first verse of the next track “don’t wait run fast”, the singer blanked on the entire second half of the first verse, “Hey you guys know I forget the lyrics at least once a fuckin show so this is the one time I fucked it up, I’m sorry.”
While this show was a stop on the Lost Americana Tour, it was also a celebration of MGK’s 2020 album Tickets To My Downfall. “Happy five year anniversary to an album that changed my entire fuckin life” MGK then dedicated the next section of his setlist to a special performance of seven songs from that album, starting with “Title Track”. While dancers tied him up with an electrical cord and duct taped his mouth shut, the singer invited a host of fans onstage to be his “bloody valentine”. MGK said that this particular group of fans was the most energetic bunch of bloody valentines he’s had on the tour thus far. While a dancer struggled to untie him, MGK told the crowd that they’ve been “practicing lots of BDSM” referencing how tight the knots around him were. Following “all I know”, MGK spotted a fan in the audience and said “Obviously I’m gonna need your costume. Can I please have it for thirty seconds? Just throw it to me.” After donning a Statue Of Liberty crown and torch, he joked “Which one is the real thing?”
After the TTMD portion of the set, MGK moved to the B-Stage towards the back of the venue for a slower, more intimate selection of his discography. He sang “indigo”, “Who I Was”, “sun to me” and “Lonely Road”. The singer bummed a cigarette off a fan in the crowd with the one request that it ‘not be a Newport’ and then asked if this was anyone’s first Machine Gun Kelly show. After some cheering he retorted “I’m kind of offended, I’ve been out for fifteen years, but you know, you have to start somewhere… Everyone put out your pinky and pinky promise that you’ll always come back whenever we’re here.” Later, the singer heard a fan shout something and asked “What’d you say? Take this off? Ask me nicely” and then ripped his tank top off before performing his hit “my ex’s best friend”. MGK said he and his crew had been waiting all tour to sing the lyric in that song “I kissed you for the first time in New York City” and that the song was written here! About a night in NYC.
There were some touching homages throughout the night like videos of MGK’s daughter Casie covering the screens during “play this when I’m gone”. There was also a montage during “your name forever” of the singer and his dear friend Luke Trembath aka “Dingo” who passed away earlier this year.
Machine Gun Kelly has been exploring his dancing skills during this era of his career. He surprised fans with the music video for “cliche” involving a full choreographed routine. He showed off these dance new skills with small moments of choreography throughout the night, a recreation of the choreography from the “cliche” music video, including the original dancer from the video Delaney Glazer, later leading to a full on dance-break after his final song “vampire diaries”.
This show was jam packed with lasers, pyrotechnics, engaging set design, outfit changes, an incredible support band, dancers and an artist devoted to his fans. Machine Gun Kelly ran through several eras of his music career and was gracious and interactive with his supporters throughout it all. He is a great performer, but also seems like a solidly decent dude. He acknowledged all of his onstage support by name and thanked fans for making it happen.
“Our first show at the Barclays Center and I pray it’s not our last.” “Welcome to the Lost Americana Tour, this fuckin rocked. Rock n’ roll ain’t dead as long as I’m alive.”
