Review: Machine Gun Kelly leans hard on canned vocals, opening acts in his Twin Cities arena debut

He entered dangling by a helicopter, blew off enough pyro to fly a rocket to the International Space Station and generally did not spare any expense in creating a visual spectacle for his first Twin Cities arena-headlining concert.

Now if only Machine Gun Kelly had hired an actual backup vocalist or hype-man rapper instead of relying so heavily on prerecorded vocals during his high-energy but weirdly whiny performance Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Throughout the 105-minute set by the Cleveland-raised rapper-turned-pop-rocker, extra vocal parts could be prominently heard in the speakers singing and rapping the choruses to his songs. Those parts were not delivered by his backup musicians, who had enough work to do just navigating the steeply sloped, checkered stage he devised for them to play on.

During the song "Drunk Face" early in the show — admittedly one it'd be easy to lose interest in singing — those other voices went on and on while MGK himself repeatedly took drags from a cigarette. MGK's own "live" voice could be easily picked out, since it sounded hoarse and ragged all night.

For more reasons than all the overhanded, augmented pre-production, it was hard to take the real-life Colson Baker, 32, as seriously as he wants to be. He practically begged for it Thursday, in fact.

The concert started with a video of him complaining about "being put in a box," during which — get this! — he was actually inside a cardboard box. Then in the second half, he kept verbally battling with a giant inflated man looming over the stage with a computer for a head, which he venomously referred to as "the internet" and "the box."

"If the internet was right about Machine Gun Kelly, when the lights go on nobody would be here," he harrumphed at one point.

To his credit, MGK did face a big crowd of nearly 14,000 fans. That's quite a jump from playing clubs and opening slots pre-COVID and then headlining the Armory last year.

A big reason for that big bump were the very things he lambasted against: all the celeb-gossip social-media chatter and online coverage of his various exploits — getting engaged to actress Megan Fox, beefing with other singers.

When he wasn't complaining about being mistreated, MGK treated fans to some fun, Blink-182-style pop-rock and some entertainingly lighter-hearted moments. Like when he repeatedly made light of the fact that his pink jeans were ripping up the back further and further as the set wore on.

"You're getting acquainted with my ass crack," he, um, cracked.

The big wow of him entering by helicopter to the tune of "Born With Horns" went on about two minutes too long, but the shows other visual effects were pretty darn nifty, including all the pyro and confetti being blown toward the end for the hits "Forget Me Too" and "My Ex's Best Friend."

Choosing those openers may have been MGK's smartest move of the night. A large percentage of the crowd showed up in time to catch Willow. The 21-year-old daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith colorfully bounced between smooth electro-R&B and moodier rock tunes, including the downright grungy "Meet Me at Our Spot."

Avril Lavigne might have been mistaken for the headliner as fans excitedly clapped along to her opening tune "Girlfriend" and then sang loudly to both "Complicated" and "Sk8ter Boi" — songs released when the Canadian singer was the same age as much of the audience (17-18).

Those fans lit up again when those opening singers each showed up during MGK's set to help deliver songs they recorded with him: Lavigne for "Bois Lie" early in the set, and then Willow near the end for the undeniably catchy and charming "Emo Girl." At least in those cases, the extra vocal parts were authentic and very welcome.