Spotted: someone rocking a cartoonish Kid LAROI on their tee, his face looking like one of those vector portraits every graphic design student in Perth churns out in year 12—or maybe we’re just going off a very specific high school’s art curriculum. They rounded off the rapper’s impressionist visual with LAROI’s infamous earring.
The shirt? It’s burrowed into the other must-have items from the merch booth at LAROI’s THE FIRST TIME Tour, currently shadowing RAC Arena in Perth, WA, in his iconic black. (The state has LAROI’s approval; despite the constant booing from other people, he claims to have had the best meal in years here.) The tees are already winning cool cred from the crowd as the tee collaborates with Headspace, Australia’s go-to non-profit for the youth’s mental health.
Le Roi Means ‘King’ In French, And These Openers Are Fit For One!
Despite the tour’s name, this isn’t LAROI’s first rodeo playing to 15,000 West Australians. His End of the World Tour already dazzled the same arena (we guess LAROI’s not big on being literal). If the globe were to crumble suddenly, then we know he’d be grinning ear to ear for smashing his own record this go-around—playing to a mind-blowing 25,000 fans at CommBank Stadium in Sydney, NSW, last Saturday. But let’s not turn this into a state rivalry, okay? Whether the crowd is vastly speckled with faces or just a handful, LAROI’s energy is purely electrifying.
If his ability to amp up an arena is cranked up to a ten, we still have to rap through ONEFOUR, made up of J Emz, Spenny, Lekks, and Celly. What’s dope about LAROI’s opening acts is that he’s not just flexing the local bands most likely to pop up on his playlists—he’s worked with them before.
Four years ago, ONEFOUR’s ‘MY CITY’ featured LAROI’s vocals spitting the iconic line “I’m like the Jay or the Drake of my city,” basically stamping Sydney on the rap map just like their rapping idols did. Meanwhile, LAROI would’ve been flipping his Australian leg of THE FIRST TIME Tour into a promotional showcase by having Quavo out with him, too. Unfortunately, due to Quavo’s visa issues, we’ll have to do what their tune ‘SLOW IT DOWN’ suggests. Of course, he’s the extra spice to that early-2000s nostalgia.
Taking The Stage In Electric Blue
Then, in a dramatic puff of blue smoke and the satisfying fire crackling, LAROI appears at the DJ set, trodding right on top of it like he owns the place—and tonight, he absolutely does. It’s ‘BABY I’M BACK,’ by the way, but you probably figured that out—after all, he’s practically ringing the doorbell of his home country with this leg of the tour. We then roll through the classics, starting with ‘SORRY’—where he delves into the messy side of fame—and his lil Tecca collab, ‘Diva.’ The music video truly brings out his muzzled Aussie accent, with lines like “so this is my truck,” giving off major ‘bloke with keys to a ute’ vibes. It’s like a cheeky nod to his Aussie roots, now hybridized with his American accent picked up from years of living in Los Angeles.
One of his recent stand-outs, ‘GIRLS,’ has the pit vibrating with fans dancing and visuals of bouncy puddles. (Though we’d rather see his lovely face up on the big screen. The girl with spring-tight curls—looking better than any L’Oréal ad—constantly popping up in the graphics isn’t doing any favors for those relying on binoculars up in the nosebleeds.) Keeping the LAROI bangers coming, we can’t skip over ‘WITHOUT YOU,’ the track where he grows devil horns—and eventually gets a feature from Ray-Bans-wearing rock chick Miley Cyrus. As phones turn into torches, the crowd sways from the dark to shine flickers of hope amid heartbreak. But no worries, it seems to have worked—things quickly take a fun turn with ‘APEROL SPRITZ.’ Yeah, the one where a whole pack of screaming fangirls are chasing him, but he’s only got his eyes set on his muse.
Of Course, There’s Time For An Encore
Then, of course, we all knew it was coming—and it’s an absolute shame that LAROI’s shaggy-haired, tattooed friend (the one who together would give any tattoo parlor a major payday) isn’t there. Yep, we’re talking about Justin Bieber—no worries, though, we’re sure his schedule is jam-packed. Forget stamping oneself onto the rap map—‘STAY’ is one of those tracks that instantly cemented LAROI’s mainstream music career, and he’s got Bieber to thank beyond just a loyal friend and mentor.
But with this jaguar of a song being one of two tracks closing the set with its ferocity, we know the show’s winding down, and those inevitable after-concert blues are about to hit hard (especially with the blue lights being back, to glitter throughout the arena). As for the closing song? That’s ‘NIGHTS LIKE THIS,’ duh, a cornerstone of THE FIRST TIME album with its lo-fi production. The only downside? It’s the shortest encore ever—clocking in at just 1.27 minutes.
Overall, THE FIRST TIME Tour proves that LAROI has built a name that reaches far beyond the Aussie crowd nestled in front of him. We just hope that the stage production will be as dynamic as his performance next time.
Have you been to one of the tour’s pit stops? We’d love to hear what song you grooved to most by commenting on our socials, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
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