Life in 2018 is, in general, complicated. Politics are a mess, global warming looms over our heads, economic prospects for young people are tenuous at best and Instagram is the best release valve many have. So maybe Post Malone is the kind of escapist fantasy people need right now. ‘This next song is about a watch.’ It Isn’t exactly a rallying cry against injustice or a clarion call for optimism, but it carries a simple and easy to understand message. So is ‘this song is about checking into your hotel and breaking everything in sight’. Things may be messed up, but we can still have a drink and vicariously buy a watch or trash a hotel room and forget about the rest of the world for a while.

On stage Austin Post, the man we know as Post Malone, is pure and unrestrained ego. His set on Friday night was simply him on stage, and the visuals were simply him projected behind himself. Just a bare stage, a man, and projections of himself. Only a single visual. Austin Post. And the crowd was very into that, with the White Stage packed to the gills.

And he seems to reciprocate, by all accounts he likes Japan a lot. He wore a shirt with ‘JAPAN’ emblazoned on the back, and pants with the Japanese flag patched onto the knee. Which was easy to spot considering how much of the set saw him with one foot up on a monitor. There is also only one word in Japanese that he really appears to know. Kanpai. Which makes sense since he is the guy who drank out of a stranger’s shoe during his set.

The music hits the pleasure center of the brain with amazing efficiency. Or perhaps it is just easy to digest like bananas. It keeps to about the same beat, it has solid hooks, and it blends very well from one song into the next. He also played a couple tunes on the acoustic guitar because Austin Post is a versatile man.

All in all, Post Malone may be the distraction we need in order to avoid thoughts of how hard life can be these days. And I think he should be given credit for that. By extension, if the state of humankind manages to improve we may be able to live in a post-Post Malone world.