Halsey and Machine Gun Kelly Trade Musical Touchdowns at Opening Night of Super Bowl Music Fest

variety.com:

Chris Willman Music WriterOn the opening night of the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest Thursday night, Halsey — doing her first concert in two years — was even more mindful in her remarks of what else happens in the host venue, Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), than what might be going down across town at SoFi Stadium this weekend.“I know it’s football time, but I’ve gotta say something,” Halsey said, finally adding after a pause: “Go, Lakers.” She explained herself: “I was getting ready for the show tonight and I was like, something good has to happen here.

The people of L.A. have to leave feeling good, right?”With two nights left to go in the Super Bowl Music Fest, it remains to be seen whether a triple dose of pop double-headers will quite make up for averted championships, but Halsey and co-headliner Machine Gun Kelly couldn’t be faulted for taking anything less than an athletic approach to their performances.

MGK made a non-dribbling trip around the arena floor, and Halsey literally bent over backward on a couple of occasions, showing that the singer hadn’t lost too many yoga steps while taking a time-out to have a baby last year. (Halsey frequently referred to the experience of motherhood, bending over frontward to glare at the genital area and wonder aloud how that came out of that.) Halsey’s appearance seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be a sneak preview of an amphitheater tout that begins in mid-May, with plenty of pyro and LED staging to suggest that the show is already up and ready to go, three months from opening night.

Machine Gun Kelly didn’t go with any visual extras for his set, meanwhile, although the vaguely advertised “… and special guests” may have counted on the bell-and-whistle.