Post Malone's Headlining Set at Gov Ball: Not much country, but tons of hits

It's kind of a weird time to be Post Malone. On the one hand, he's coming off the two hardest, least successful albums of his career—the latter of which, 2023 Austin, failed to generate a single top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, marking a clear commercial low point for the pop-rap gold-spinner surpassed only by Drake in terms of consistent chart success for the second half of the 2010s. on the other hand, he already has two No. 1 hits this year, albeit both with co-stars (Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, respectively) whose radio and streaming numbers easily eclipse his own. Further complicating matters: The latter of those two No. 1s marks the beginning of his much-hyped full-on foray into country music, a genre with which he has some obvious spiritual affinity, but only a tangential musical connection.

That was a lot of balance for Post Malone during the first day of New York's Governors Ball festival (now officially referred to as “Gov Ball”) — or at least, it looks like it should have been. But instead of trying to thread the needle between his successful past, his murkier present and his uncertain future, Post decided to keep things simple with his Gov Ball setlist: He just played the hits. And he's got a lot of them: more than you might remember, more than seems likely for a guy who's only been making them since 2015, and it's been a relatively dry period for them since the decade turned. As far as streamlining strategies go, it was pretty unmistakable.

“My name is Austin Richard Post,” the singer-rapper introduced himself after his first two songs, “and I'm here to play some s-tty songs and wake up a little while we're at it.” Either dismissing his signature hits as “s–tty” was a sign of residual bitterness over his heavier, more personal recent work not being as warmly received as his debauched early hits, or simply that the artist didn't take himself too seriously seriously, it really wasn't after all. it matters, since it became clear very quickly Post wasn't interested in repeating anything about his career on the night. Instead, he played one smash after another – from “Better Now” and “Wow” to “Circles” and “Congratulations” – while grinning, screaming, two-stepping and stripping (his shirt, anyway or otherwise) on stage, looking every so often. the superstar who was at his commercial peak.

The question of a Post Malone concert has traditionally not been whether he would look like a star, but which star would headline: rap star Post, rock star Post, pop star Post, or now even country star Post? Actually, it's been all four for quite some time – well, the first three, anyway, with a fourth apparently on the way. But if anyone was the most aggressive on Friday night, it was probably rock star Post, with the first two songs (and many subsequent tracks) both presented through guitarist Liv Slingerland's grungy riffs and mostly six-strings (and just heavy period) marginal inclusions like Beerbongs and Bentleys“Now” and Bleeding Hollywood “Take What You Want” makes the cut. There was a lot of grunting and chopping. Once, Post threw devil horns while hunching his shoulders and briefly looked a bit like Ronnie James Dio. At some point in the middle of the set, the mix of loud, strumming guitars with rapping – mostly about being mad at girls – inspired me to write in my notes: Was Post Malone nu-metal all along?

But if country star Post is indeed on the horizon, you wouldn't know it from his appearance at the Gov Ball. Just one day after two surprise appearances at CMA Fest — including one with longtime Nashville fixture Blake Shelton, with the two even covering a George Jones song together — she didn't bring out Shelton, or Wallen, or anyone invited for further shepherding. his new country. (Apart from a couple of fans who pulled out of the audience to help with the signature ballad “Stay,” there were no guests of any kind during Post's performance, not even his “Rockstar” friend 21 Savage, who will appear on Gov Ball on Saturday.) There was no mention from Post of his recent sonic and geographic detour, nor did he sample any brand new or unreleased material from his rumored upcoming full-length. If you didn't know going into the set that Going Country was a thing Post was currently in the middle of, you probably didn't come out knowing either.

There was still one obvious clue, though you had to wait until the second song of the encore for that: “I Had Some Help,” the reigning No. 1 song in country, finally appeared as the night's penultimate track. . (As for “Fortnight,” his other No. 1 of 2024, forget it — it's one thing for Post to sing over a Morgan Wallen verse, but trying to approach an entire Taylor Swift vocal on his own would have been potentially disastrous on multiple levels.) “Help” sounded fantastic, and the crowd went bananas for it, but other than putting it on the setlist, Post didn't give it any special treatment, any lead or extra emphasis or anything that would makes you think it was a particularly noteworthy song than most on Friday's setlist. The implication was clear: “Help” is a hit, but it's still just one of many for Posty, and no player is bigger than the group in a Post Malone setlist.

More of a statement, however, was the choice of the encore's final song: “Chemical,” the biggest song from Austin, whose peak of No. 13 was still pretty lackluster by his career standards. It was the only song from his 2023 album — four times more plays than his 2016 debut Stoney — but it landed just as well as any of his biggest, long-running hits, sounding much fuller live than recorded, and making for a perfect resonant closing number for the night. The proposal seemed like the Post never had Really stopped making big singles in the first place — and that regardless of whether on any given day he might present himself more as a pop star, rap star, rock star or country star, what he really is and always will be first and foremost is a hitmaker.

SETLIST

Better now
Wow
Zack and Codeine
Psychopath
Goodbye
I Like You (A Happier Song)
Jonestown (Interlude)
Take what you want
Up now
Rock star
Accommodation
I fell apart
Wrapped around your finger
Circles
Very young
Wyatt Iverson
Congratulations

I call again:

Litmus
I had some help
Chemical substance