Live Review: Danny Brown at The Princess Theatre

Danny Brown live in Brisbane at The Princess Theatre. Photo credit: Kelsey Doyle (@kjdoyle)

The sonic chameleon that is Danny Brown ignited the first leg of his four-stop Stardust Australian tour in Meanjin last Friday. Dropping in with irrepressible ferocity at Woolloongabba’s Princess Theatre, Brown was among the flurry of talent passing through Brisbane for The Tivoli Group’s annual Open Season. The Detroit native’s return down under was a frenetic offering of his transformative musical development’s latest chapter. 

In ways always falling short of a description worth its salt, many have tried to pigeonhole the entirety of Brown’s catalogue into tidy boxes that do no justice to the breadth of his sound. Alternative. Experimental. Progressive. These may be serviceable in the elevator with a co-worker who’s name you just cannot seem to remember, but they communicate remarkably little about an artist who has charted countless soundscapes in his near-two decade tenure. These terms tell us nothing of the soul-sampling, backpack raps on Hot Soup, the hardcore realism of XXX, the industrial and volatile Atrocity Exhibition, or his most recent adrenaline-fuelled EDM on Stardust. 

Danny has repeatedly proven that no singular label can encapsulate his extensive discography. On Friday night, the Danny Brown that arrived at The Princess Theatre was one in complete dance floor euphoria. Anticipation presaged his first footfall. 

Under the high ceiling of the once-picture theatre, rag merchant, church and now-live music powerhouse, restless vim thronged the air in the hours leading to Brown’s showpiece performance. Following a raw, hard-edged opening set by Australian hip-hop act Keil, the crowd let loose their eagerness in proud roars for the lone stagehand preparing Danny’s arrival. Excitement buzzed through the air in tangible expectation.  

Once the low-slung tracks that had kept the crowd occupied began to fade and house lights above dimmed, Danny, fittingly, burst from the stage wings draped in a thick fur coat. His entrance was every bit larger-than-life as his kaleidoscopic catalogue. 

Hundreds of feet sprung off the floor at Starburst’s frenetic opening synth loops. They jumped, again, again and again, and didn’t seem to stop for the next eighteen tracks. Rounding out a four-piece of bouncy and hyperpop-infused Stardust cuts, Danny continued to rile up the willing crowd into a feverish and euphoric vortex with his deliveries of Lift You Up and Green Light. Life was breathed into every hypnotic groove, crafting an ecstatically human feel that has become Stardust’s signature. Beer sloshed out of cups as outstretched arms flung above bodies bucking shoulder-to-shoulder. Credit where credit is due, the youthful crowd predominating Danny’s Brisbane fanbase electrified the atmosphere. Both brown and the crowd fed off each other’s energy, heightening the Princess’ voracious aura to a fever pitch. 

Danny continued to entertain, feeding long-time fans with timeless XXX tracks Lie 4 and I Will, alongside cult-classics Ain’t it Funny and When it Rain off his critically-acclaimed Atrocity Exhibition. By the time Brown fired up the title track off his 2023 JPEGMAFIA collaboration SCARING THE HOES, the crowd tore itself open and I found myself beside a hole seemingly half the size of floor. Upon detonation of the jagged wall of percussion that summits the track, I, among many others, was launched straight-on into the mosh frenzy.

Embracing his newly revolutionised sound, the Bruiser Brigade founder played recent features on tracks Shake It Like A by Frost Children and Psychoboost by Jane Remover. The latter - a perfectly disorderly, maximalist and glitchy hardstyle track - was unsurprisingly met with gratified relish by the crowd. Danny darted up and down the stage as he danced along the track’s continuously frantic builds and drops. When the dust settled, I was left in a state of elation, barely fazed by the tooth-shaped dent in my head and the sole of my boot that was now clinging for life. 

On a night of such excitement and rapture, my only true complaint of the Danny Brown experience was how short-lived it was. After an hour of wholehearted exertion, Brown’s set ended on his Stardust closer, All4U. The audience apparently shared my grievances, the ever-so customary ‘one more song!’ being thunderously chanted to no avail. Despite the lack of encore, it would be of much surprise to me if anyone left the Princess Theatre that night with anything to whinge about other than a desire for more. Danny injected vitality that superseded the close of his performance, and reminded many why he has remained one of contemporary hip-hop’s most infamous trailblazers. Alternative. Experimental. Progressive. All may be true, but none are quite able to define the hour of spectacle Meanjin saw on Friday Night. 

Photo gallery by Kelsey Doyle (@kjdoyle)