Post Malone delivers rock star energy, hip-hop swagger at sold-out Pine Knob concert

Post Malone opened his sold-out concert at Pine Knob Music Theatre on Tuesday night wearing an Insane Clown Posse jersey and closed the 1-hour, 40-minute show in a Bob Seger T-shirt.

Aside from representing two very different pieces of the Detroit music pie, the disparity between the two artists illustrated, in a sense, the progression of Post Malone's career since his 2016 debut to the present, from hip-hop upstart to formidable rock and roller. And he showed all sides of his varied persona during his vibrant 24-song set, which fell on a sticky summer night at the outdoor amphitheater and teased the arrival of his fifth album, "Austin," which is due out later this month.

Posty, as he's known by the 15,000-plus fans who chanted his nickname before, during and after the show, looked lean and chiseled in his newly trim body, alternately strutting across the stage like Freddie Mercury and crouching low to the ground while singing and emoting like Slipknot's Corey Taylor. He gave an immensely physical performance, dancing, twisting and doubling over on the ground as he sang, shouted and growled like a rocker uncaged.

He was joined by his five-member band and a four-piece string section, the nine players marking the first time the freshly turned 28-year-old has toured with a live backing band. All young musicians, they vibed out on stage just as much as the artist himself, at times resembling a group of contest winners who couldn't believe they were sharing a stage with their hero.

The band gave a muscular alt-rock crunch to opener "Better Now," which Malone augmented with a screamo vocal performance which turned up the intensity of the 2018 hit. The vibe and energy was palpable in the thick evening air, and Post rolled it into "Wow," which was also given a distorted rock makeover, even while backed by a rattling hip-hop drum track.

That mix of hip-hop and rock energy typifies the New York-born, Dallas-raised genre hopper, who was perhaps not tipped as one of his era's leading hitmakers upon his arrival onto the musical landscape with his 2015 debut single, "White Iverson." But he's proven to be a dexterous presence across the pop music spectrum, scoring hits in the rap, pop and R&B fields, with 10 of his tracks flying past Spotify's 1-billion stream marker.

On stage he's friendly and even soft-spoken, frequently thanking the "ladies and gentlemen" in the audience and modestly apologizing for dipping too heavily into the as-yet-unheard new album. "I barely even know the words to this song," he said as he segued into "Overdrive," one of four of the new album's instantly catchy songs he played over the course of the night.

That Insane Clown Posse jersey he sported — it was from the "Amazing Jeckel Brothers" era, for all the Juggalos keeping score at home — was doffed roughly eight songs into the show, as Posty went shirtless for most of the concert, appropriate given the evening's heat. "I'm a sweaty lad tonight," he said, toweling off his heavily tattooed torso before dipping into "I Fall Apart," a wrenching ballad from his debut album.

His production included pyrotechnics, as much fire as a Rob Zombie concert and a video wall that projected images of volcanoes (during "rockstar"), falling stars (during "Stay") and circles (during, er, "Circles"). "I apologize for butchering that," he said following "Circles," during which his microphone cut in and out.

It was no matter, as Post's presence — his rousing confidence, his laid back swagger — overpowered any technical snafus that may have occurred during the evening. When he dropped down to give hugs, handshakes and high-fives to the fans in the general admission pit area following an encore performance of he and Swae Lee's jumbo-sized hit "Sunflower," he came back up with a Bob Seger shirt handed to him by a fan.

He slipped it over his head for the evening's final song, the new album's "Chemical," which had fans bouncing up and down in their seats and on the packed lawn. And he left the crowd at Bob Seger Dr. with a memorable lasting image, as Post toasted the stage with a genre mashing style that couldn't have been envisioned when Seger first played Pine Knob, 51 summers ago.

agraham@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @grahamorama