Post Malone draws monster crowd at FEQ for epic show
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
“Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.”
Post Malone, a global superstar of the highest order, appeared genuinely humbled and grateful in front of a monster Festival d’Été (FEQ) crowd on the closing Friday of the event.
Taking the stage about 15 minutes past the 9:30 p.m. target, Malone’s show instantly won the hearts of the boisterous and adoring throng with a riveting opening featuring an ethereal string quartet of four women who quickly burst – literally, with the first of many fireworks salvos – into a musical storm that roared through an epic set that finished with no less than three encore tunes.
Malone – he introduced him- self by his real name, Austin Richard Post – is by his own description, a musical chameleon, “genre-less,” whose success as a songwriter and performer resides in his ability to create a gripping tune by melding and experimenting with all variety of styles, from hip-hop to pop and even country.
Indeed, Malone begins a tour in the United States in September based on his first country album, F-1 Trillion.
When FEQ organizers announced the 2024 lineup in March, Post Malone was acknowledged as the event’s biggest “get,” given his limited touring schedule and the enormity of demand from a multitude of festivals.
Born on the fourth of July, Malone, now 29, spent his early childhood in Syracuse, N.Y., but moved with his family to Texas when he was nine. He picked up a guitar when he was 15 and played in several bands before he found his first success with “White Iverson” which had 10,000,000 sales or streams.
Since then he’s won multiple awards and set sales records, including his nine diamond-certified recordings. Chugging beers, smoking cigarettes, joking with the crowd, pacing the stage like an animal, flexing his tattoo- cluttered torso, cussing up a storm, Malone was what his Québécois fans would agree on as a “vraie bête de scène.” In fact, as is his tradition, Malone invited a fan on stage to show his appreciation. Félix Bergeron gushed “C’est une rêve” and played acoustic guitar to accompany Malone on his hit “Stay.”
As FEQ said in its promotion of Malone, many fans – Bergeron among them – dreamed of seeing Post Malone at the festival. Now it’s happened and few would disagree this was a performer who matched the scale and spectacle of FEQ. It was the largest crowd of the festival, with security officials closing the entrance gates at 8:40 p.m. The venue’s maximum capacity is 100,000 people.
Not that Malone needed any help to jack up the fans, but Jessie Murph, a poster girl for viral social media success, charmed and seduced the crowd with her blend of broken-hearted lover and defiant swagger.
The 19-year-old from Tennessee, as legend has it, literally Googled “how to become famous” and then began creating lip-sync videos and posting them online. She hit the jackpot with her composition “Always Been You,” released on TikTok in the fall of 2019, which drew tens of millions of streams.
With a sense of humour, a raspy wail of a voice and a world-class potty mouth, Murph wowed the mob and said it was the biggest crowd she’d ever played. “F**k, I love you Quebec,” she said midway through her 40-minute, 15- song set.
She finished her show with “Son of a Bitch” wielding a bejeweled Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
The opening act was Canadian perky-pop trio Valley, whose lead singer and guitarist, Rob Laska, told the crowd he felt like “family” since his girlfriend’s parents come from Quebec.
The veteran Toronto-based group paced through a string of catchy tunes, with energetic drumming from Karah James (wearing a Girls Rock T-shirt) and creative guitar work from Alex Dimauro.