It can be challenging to quantify an artist like Bladee.
Bladee is one of the founding pillars of the cloud rap genre, a style of rap that only emerged in the late 2000s.Alongside his contemporaries in the Drain Gang collective, like Yung Lean and Ecco2k, Bladee's heavy use of AutoTune and frostbitten beats marked a shift in the direction underground rap was heading.
It's safe to argue we wouldn't have seen artists like Lil Peep or 2hollis without the groundwork that Bladee and Drain Gang laid during the past decade.
Bladee's last tour of Australia was in 2019, nearly six years ago. Back then, I remember barely seeing buzz around his visit. I'd previously done photos for another member of Drain Gang, Thaiboy Digital, in 2019, and the room was half empty. Comparatively, Bladee sold out his 2025 tour of Australia in no time at all.
Bladee - image © Dylan Hewitson-Bevis
You could likely contribute Bladee's sudden spike in popularity to his collaborations with artists like Charli XCX, as well as his music pairing perfectly with 15- to 30-second TikToks. It's fascinating to watch as somebody who has been listening to his music since the beginning.
Brisbane's The Tivoli was packed from wall to wall with patrons from the minute doors opened (20 July). The show was well and truly sold out, with the upstairs mezzanine dedicated to attendees under 18. I felt like one of the oldest people there, even at only 24 years old.
I missed my chance to see and take photos for Bladee back in 2019 due to some conflicting plans, so it felt like a full-circle moment being at The Tivoli in 2025, camera in hand.
I wouldn't say I'm as 'in touch' with Bladee's style of music as I used to be, but regardless, I can confirm I was as excited as everybody else to see him perform.
Opening the show was Ripsquad. The Australian-based collective had previously collaborated with Bladee on his 2018 mixtape 'Icedancer', so getting to see one of their producers DJing was a treat.
Ripsquad - image © Dylan Hewitson-Bevis
He opened the set with some slow acoustic cuts, sampling audio from what sounded like old voicemail messages. After that intro, the tempo picked up and had everybody in the room moving.
I was reminded of other sets I've seen elsewhere in the world from Drain Gang production artists, like Varg2 and Mechatok. High energy, futuristic beats and a whole lot of fun. There was an intermission between Ripsquad and Bladee, filled with a mix of orchestral strings and droning ambience.
The lighting onstage flashed in a steady build until eventually the music cut out and the room went black. Bladee walked out to what I can only describe as an ungodly amount of smoke and fog. He looked like he'd travelled backwards through time to join us.
A lot of his set consisted of music he'd released after 2020, which had the new generation crowd ecstatic. I will note that some of the biggest cheers of the night were when Bladee threw it back to his 2016 debut album 'Eversince', with songs like 'Sugar' and 'Sick' taking me back to those days of being on the bus in high school.
Bladee - image © Dylan Hewitson-Bevis
The mix of heavy strobes and constant fog felt like we'd been visited by an alien. Bladee concerts are more akin to a rave, especially with his newest music. I'd like to see Bladee return soon, hopefully with more members of Drain Gang on the bill.
I managed to see a show with him, Thaiboy Digital and Ecco2k in some warehouse in Brooklyn back in 2022 and that was truly like no other concert I've been to.
As a solo act, Bladee is a lot of fun. I don't know if I've aged out of raves or his music, but I'm glad I got to appease my high-school self by seeing him perform live.
More photos from the concert.
