5 things you missed at Post Malone's sold-out Riverbend show

Post Malone's sold-out performance at Riverbend Music Center Sunday night was a hoot and a holler. I learned a lot. I learned that when you finally get to your seat to settle in for the show and see an ad for Skyline Chili blaring on the projector screen, you get up from your seat and wait in line for 30 minutes for two $5 cheese coneys. And it is worth it.

I also learned five things about Post Malone.

1. Post Malone is a rock star

Driving to the show, I wondered which Post Malone was going to show up at Riverbend. Was it going to be "White Iverson," the dreaded, clout-chasing mongrel of a rapper from Malone's original branding? Maybe we were going to get "Moody Malone," a moniker fitting for the pop-gloom of his last two albums. But neither of those personalities took the stage on Sunday night.

Posty played the frontman to a 10-person band including two guitarists, a bassist, a keyboardist, a drummer and a string quartet. Yes, that's right, Post Malone performed alongside a string quartet for over two hours. But strings or not, Malone was singing in a rock band.

"I'm super f---ing new to playing with a beautiful f---ing band, but I'm gonna try my best," he said after the first song, "Better Now" (2018). This tour is a shift for Malone.

The man that performed at Riverbend on Sunday night was not a rapper, but a rock star.

2. Post Malone plays guitar

The debate ends here: Post Malone is a guitarist. The man can strum six strings and play the right chords at the right time (even if those chords are most often the classic C, G, A minor and F).

Malone played two songs on electric guitar and four songs on acoustic. The acoustic performances were the more impressive of the bunch. For most of Malone's acoustic renditions, the ting of his guitar and the rasp of his voice were the only sounds coming from the stage. He didn't feel the need to hide his instrumentation behind smashing drums and glaring electricity. If he had made a mistake, it would have been obvious. He did not.

Two of Malone's acoustic renditions were off of his upcoming album, "Austin," set to be released on July 28. Before each of those new songs, "Overdrive" and "Enough is Enough," Malone lit a cigarette and made a disclaimer about how he wasn't good at guitar and didn't know the song too well. He then plucked the strings with the cigarette in hand and once moved it to his mouth to sing a verse. With the cigarette between his teeth, I couldn't make out the lyrics he was singing. I got the feeling it was on purpose.

Maybe, without the blare of a band, he had to find somewhere else to hide. It's not the only time a cigarette has been used for such a cause.

3. Post Malone is so f---ing thankful

Every time he paused between songs, Malone said these exact words: "Thank you so very f---ing much." Every single time, without fail. It was sweet, but also a little strange. After the first few times, the crowd cheered, reciprocating the gratitude. As the show went on, and the expletive graciousness continued to billow down from the stage, the crowd became less enthusiastic with their responses. It was as if they were saying, "Yeah, we know. You've said it before." Which he did, 23 times.

4. Post Malone will 'do anything to be cool'

Malone played four songs off his upcoming album, "Austin" (2023). One of those new songs was "Overdrive," the lyrics to which I think speak a lot to Malone's approach to songwriting.

"I spend my life on overdrive / I live my life so overtime / And there's nowhere I can hide," Malone opens up the song singing. This is pretty standard fare for Malone, if not something of a return to old form. It's the hook that really sets the song apart, lyrically and philosophically:

"I'd do anything to be cool to you," Malone repeats.

I see those lines as something of an admission from Malone. Sure, you can read the words, "I'd do anything to be cool to you," as a wish to be cool in the eyes of a romantic interest, but I think the words are not addressed to a lover, but rather to Malone's audience. I see those words as an admission of the pressure he feels to appeal to his audience and keep up with the "cool" in the rapidly shifting tastes of pop culture.

So far, Malone has stood the test of time, morphing from a vapid, clout-chasing rapper to a self-conscious acoustic rock star. Introspection is in. Is Malone only shifting gears because it's cool, or is it cool to be introspective precisely because pop personalities like Malone are just now letting themselves be vulnerable?

It's an open question.

5. Post Malone has advice for you

Malone saved all of his advice for the end. At the end of the set, just before the break for the encore (a dumb tradition in my opinion, but that's for another story), Malone decided to let Cincinnati hear his thoughts:

"Keep living your dreams, keep not giving a s--- and keep doing you because no one can ever f---ing stop you. It doesn't matter whether you wanna be an archeologist or a f---ing professional beer pong player because no one can f---ing stop you."

At the end of encore, he said something similar in more brief terms:

"Go be yourself. Go be beautiful. And don't let anybody tell you s---!"

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Post Malone shows his rock star side to sold-out Riverbend crowd