Post Malone ‘Better Now’ after scorching KAABOO Del Mar set

It hasn’t been a great September so far for Post Malone. The month kicked off with two armed robbers breaking into his former San Fernando Valley residence in hopes of stealing more from him than the 20K they ended up getting from the home’s current residents.

Then, last week, the multi-platinum-certified rapper and singer (real name Austin Post) crashed his Rolls-Royce Wraith in West Hollywood. And while he was a passenger at the time of the accident, it did prompt Post to tweet “god must hate me lol.”

The two potentially catastrophic incidents ended without any serious injuries, but they follow on the footsteps of a situation in August which found the Texas-bred, chart-topper on a private jet that was forced to make an emergency landing after its tires blew during takeoff.

But he seemed to have put it all behind him when he took the MGM Resorts Grandview stage on Friday night at KAABOO Del Mar.

Dressed in an oversized white t-shirt with “RIP MAC MILLER” spray painted on the front (in reference to the fellow rapper who died of an apparent drug overdose last week), Post took the stage amid a lengthy cinematic intro and a flood of strobe lights, smoke, and pyrotechnics.

Overheard in the crowd was one fan that said, “It feels like Pink Floyd is about to come on!” But there would be no psychedelic noodling or progressive rock compositions on Friday. The face-tattooed 23-year-old did open with the melancholy Too Young, an obvious nod to Miller, but rarely let his set get that introspective for the rest of the night.

The overflowing crowd came alive when Post followed it with the smash hit Better Now from his April-released sophomore album, Beerbongs & Bentleys. The 18-track collection not only debuted at the top spot on the U.S. Billboard and U.K. Albums chart (as well as multiple countries worldwide), it broke the previous record shared by The Beatles and J. Cole (six) by having nine consecutive songs in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. The Beatles had held the honor for 54 years until J. Cole tied it briefly in May.

The success didn’t seem to go to his head, however, as Post repeatedly and profusely thanked fans throughout his set for choosing to spend their time with him.

Post was also extremely chatty all night, injecting origin stories at almost every song break as he exuberantly ran through hits including Rockstar, Psycho, Big Lie, Deja Vu, and Candy Paint.

Despite playing against Day 1’s headlining act, Foo Fighters for half his time, the solo performer retained an enormous crowd for the entirety of his 90-minute show and rewarded fans for sticking around.

Mid-set, after addressing his recent bad luck, he busted out a stool and acoustic guitar for an intimate rendition of debut album Stoney (deluxe edition) closer, Feeling Whitney.

The song, which easily could have fit into any of the other attending rock band’s sets on Friday, showcased the diversity of the young artist, even though two songs later he decided to emphatically smash the guitar on stage.

Post closed the rousing set with some of his biggest hits, including the one that put him on the map, White Iverson.

The evening came to an end as the rapper drove the crowd into a sing-along frenzy with his massive hit Congratulations (the song is approaching a billion views on YouTube) and he exited by walking through the center of the stage area giving high-fives to fans.

At least for now, it seems things are on the upswing.

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