Machine Gun Kelly Live at The Armory – Minneapolis MN – September 9th 2021

Live Nation and The Armory present Machine Gun Kelly live

Photos by Adam Mandel

It was a warm, beautiful Thursday night in downtown Minneapolis. As I pulled up,
thousands of pop-punk fans filled in to see Machine Gun Kelly live at the Armory.

Machine Gun Kelly, MGK are a few of the nicknames artist Colson Baker is known by.
MGK started off the show getting raised up on a gigantic prescription pill bottle with his
lively hits “Title Track”, “Kiss Kiss”, “Smoke and Drive” and “Drunk Face” off his multi
silver and platinum album Tickets To My Downfall. Fans of all ages sang along to the
expletive-laced music along with him all night.

The stage floor was ornately decorated with a great variety of visuals spread across the
stage that went into fantastic detail. Ranging from large prescription bottles (notably
labeled Downfalls Pharmacy and Keep Away From Children) echo the pop-punk’s
struggle with Adderall, to MGK’s pink cupid mic stand to a massive skull head from the
Hotel Diablo album captivated the fans.

Machine Gun Kelly’s live setlist was absolutely thrilling. Performing songs from his Tickets To My Downfall
album and the recent Hotel Diablo, including Misery Business (Paramore cover) and
Wild Boy Till I Die – not on official MGK setlist, but added at the last minute due to fan
requests.

The 31-year-old hip-hop act refashioned the pop-punk sound for his last studio work
Tickets to My Downfall, which debuted at number. 1 on the Billboard 100 llast October.
The LP was MGK’s first No. 1 album and the first No. 1 rock attributed on the all-genre
albums chart in more than a year. Tickets to My Downfall also scored the award for best
rock album at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards. The encore went on for another 40
minutes past the show’s time frame making it one of the best shows I’ve been to.
The pop-punk, singer, rapper, songwriter, guitarist and actor is gearing up to release
another album soon with his extraordinary sixth studio effort, collaborating with producer
Travis Barker from Blink-182 – revealed with matching tattoos of the phrase “born with
horns”, the album’s title.