Photos courtesy of Brendan Cecich Photography

The heavy rain didn’t deter concert-goers on their way to see Indonesian rap star, Rich Brian last night — but it did ensure that all the real fans rocked up, and boy, were they in for a party.

Walking into Metro City, the slightly wet crowd was eagerly awaiting the 19 year old super star’s return to Australia after dropping his sophomore album The Sailor earlier this year. In essence, the album represents Brian’s journey. Becoming a traveller after moving to America from Indonesia, the album also represents his rise to fame — a somewhat coming of age.

Brian’s Miami DJ, DJ Krez, warmed the slightly freezing crowd up, getting everyone bustling and anticipated. Worthy additions from the A$AP Mob in the set are always going to get the crowd pumping. He ended his DJ set with ‘Midsummer Madness’, which warmed everyone up as they belted out the chorus.

Backed by the beautiful visuals of Indonesia’s greenery and locals, Brian came out, opening with ‘The Sailor’. He kept the vibe going with ‘Rapapapa’ and got the crowd jumping with his older collaboration with XXXTentacion and Keith Ape, ‘Gospel’. Brian didn’t disappoint bringing back his old hits either, playing ‘Who Dat Be’, ‘Cold’ and ‘History’, with the entirety of Metro City singing along.

The Indonesian rapper took multiple opportunities to talk to the crowd, saying how at home he feels in Australia as if he’s seeing all his old friends — and of course, he couldn’t resist his fair share of “Aussie Aussie Aussie!”s. The middle of his set was peppered with his slower songs, which saw him sitting down on stage, singing ‘Curious’ and getting everyone’s flashlights waving for a beautifully sung ‘Drive Safe’.

It could be noted, that although Rich Brian’s music videos are quite the masterpieces, their presence behind him drew the attention away from the live set. How hard is it not to be immersed in ‘Yellow’s amazing music video though!

Shortly after, Rich Brian brought the vibe back up, dropping ‘Slow Down Turbo’, ‘Glow Like Dat’ and of course the banger that cemented him as Asia’s biggest rapper — ‘Dat $tick’. Regardless to say, the place went wild as soon as the opening melody played.

With a picture of Brian’s family on the screen, he finished his set with ‘Kids’. The song acts as an ode to the process of his career progression, a shout-out to his Indonesian roots, and was a well-decided conclusion to the night. Listening to the crowd’s pleas for another song, Brian encored with the only song that would make sense — ‘Dat $tick’. With even a mosh circle opening up, the night ended on a great note.

Despite being only an hour long, Rich Brian’s performance successfully packed most of his old and new hits in. Although it would’ve been nicer to spend just a little more time on singing all the songs from his new album, the concert was definitely an amazing night for all involved.