After what feels like forever, Post Malone’s “Runaway” Tour finally touched down in Salt Lake City on November 11th. Before landing in Utah’s capital city, the tour hit many cities including Portland, Sacramento, Toronto, and Atlanta. Each show on the tour has been a sellout, being that Malone has become a music superstar. SLC is one of the last shows on the tour before it wraps up in Los Angeles on November 21st.

Since this is Posty’s first headlining arena tour, I wasn’t fully sure of what to expect. But as I got to the show and saw the sheer number of crazed fans, I knew that it was going to be delightful. The chatter of the crowds and their energy was palpable; I couldn’t wait for it to start. The tour is in support of his third album Hollywood’s Bleeding, which is one of the year’s best so far. Click the blue link above for my album review and read this post for my analysis of Malone’s Utah show!     

Beginning of the Runaway Tour

As I said before, the energy inside the arena was insane even before the main event started. Openers Tyla Yaweh and Swae Lee hyped the crowd up quite well and everyone was anxiously chattering in their seats as the clock hit 9:45pm. As with most shows, the arena went dark and the crowd went insane. The melodies of the titular track to Hollywood’s Bleeding began and then Malone’s powerful vocals hit the mic. The visuals were crazy as the whole arena was black with hints of red lights coming from the stage. 

Up next, Posty performed a medley of hits and Hollywood’s Bleeding tracks including “Better Now”, “Saint-Tropez”, “Goodbyes”, and “Die For Me”. This part of the set pumped the energy up super high and was a great way to start the show.        

Posty’s setlist

One of the things I appreciated the most from this show was the diversity of the setlist that was performed. Aside from Hollywood’s Bleeding songs, we heard tracks from each of his first two studio albums as well loose tracks. Perhaps one of the best moments of the night for me personally was hearing “Candy Paint”. I didn’t expect to hear this song at all but it was a great callback to a past era.  

Later in the show he played more tracks from his latest album including “Enemies”, “Wow.”, and “Take What You Want”. Each song got the crowd more hyped but surprisingly Malone didn’t perform that many tracks from his new album. We also had a nice little acoustic section of the show in which he played “Stay” and “Over Now”.

 Near the end of the show, Post performed some of his biggest tracks in “Rockstar”, “I Fall Apart” and “Congratulations”. Day one Post Malone fans loved this part of the show by their response. It was a beautiful moment for sure!   

Standout moments

As with any huge concert, there has to be a few standout moments. One moment that I absolutely loved was when Malone brought Swae Lee back out and performed “Sunflower”. The crowd was beyond hyped at this moment; everyone loved the track and the beautiful rendition of it. Another great moment in the show was when Posty very emotionally addressed the crowd before jumping right into “White Iverson”. Fans sang every word and you could just hear Malone’s pure energy as he belted the lyrics. My personal favorite moment of the show was when he performed Beerbongs & Bentleys intro track “Paranoid”. The track showed Posty’s self reflexivity and was a very honest and beautiful display of his fame. The emotion in the track isn’t easily matched and is a big highlight in his discography for sure.     

Final thoughts

To wrap up the show after performing his biggest hits, Malone thanked the crowd numerous times for showing up again. The last thing he said was “It feels so good to be back home”. That statement got probably the biggest cheer of the night, showing how much Utah loves Post Malone.

Overall, this concert was amazing. It was without a doubt the best show I’ve seen this year and was worth the price of admission. Malone played tracks from each era of his music as well as interacted with the crowd a good amount. He actually sang the words rather than let the backing track do all the work, which was great to see. If you are even aren’t the biggest fan of Post, he puts on such a great show that it is worth it to attend. I can only hope that his next show in Utah is at this same quality or even better.    

K-UTE Radio/University of Utah does not own images in this piece.