Post Malone, Pokémon Day virtual concert, review: the strangest, most surreal birthday party ever

In case you didn’t know, February 27 is Pokémon Day. It’s celebrated every year on the date that the original games (Pocket Monsters: Red and Pocket Monsters: Green) were released in Japan. Those two Gameboy games kickstarted a franchise that went on to become the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. Pikachu and his chums have made more money than Star Wars, Mickey Mouse or Harry Potter. No wonder the creators felt like they deserved their own day to celebrate.

This year Pokémon turned 25. It’s the same age as rock-rapper Post Malone, who just so happens to have developed a bit of a thing for Nineties culture. He broke through in 2015 with the trap-inspired White Iverson but 2019’s Hollywood’s Bleeding took more influence from punk upstarts Green Day and the Seattle Grunge scene than anything rooted in hip-hop.

Early in lockdown last year, he teamed up with Blink-182’s Travis Barker for a Nirvana tribute concert, broadcast from their respective homes. Channelling the spirit of Kurt Cobain, Malone wore a dress and refused to play Smells Like Teen Spirit. Dave Grohl said it “sounded great”.

Add in the fact that the tattooed singer (real name Austin Richard Post) has always been seen as a bit of a cartoon character (he infamously destroyed an acoustic guitar during his 2019 headline set at Reading Festival to prove his rockstar credentials) and it’s easy to see why Malone was asked to play a virtual gig to celebrate Pokémon’s 25th Anniversary on Saturday night. The resulting show was the strangest, most surreal birthday party you’ll ever attend.

Transformed into a digital version of himself that wouldn’t look out of place in the latest incarnation of the games, Malone started the concert with a family friendly version of Psycho (there’s no swearing in Pokémon) from the middle of a packed cartoon stadium. The pop-rock skip of Circles and a sunny cover of Hootie & The Blowfish’s 1995 classic Only Wanna Be With You followed, before digital fireworks backed the closing grunge-rap track Congratulations. Almost as quickly as it started, the gig was over.

Rugged enough to feel properly live but polished to the point of sounding massive, it was the closest I’ve got to a stadium gig in over a year. With the freedom of a digital landscape, Malone could be seen performing inside a volcano and under the ocean as various Pokémon frolicked around him.

It wasn’t particularly serious, but the whole thing felt like a continuation from what Travis Scott started last year when he performed inside the game Fortnite. It’s looking likely that these crossover events will be around long after Covid-19.

However at just 12 minutes long, the whole thing felt more like a taster of what’s possible rather than the finished product. Complaints came in thick and fast from the 150,000 people watching on YouTube, who’d have demanded refunds if tonight had cost them anything. And the less said about Malone missing the open goal of covering that iconic TV theme tune, the better.

Rather than a standalone event, this celebratory concert served as an announcement for an upcoming Pokémon Compilation album due out this autumn on Capitol Records and featuring Malone, popstar Katy Perry, reggaeton singer J Balvin and others.

If it’s half as bonkers as Saturday night’s launch event, it should be a whole lot of fun. As for Malone, maybe his upcoming headline performance at Reading & Leeds Festivals will see him pay homage to The Matrix, The Spice Girls or the Millennium bug. After this concert, nothing would surprise me.

Watch a recording of the concert here