There’s a moment midway through mgk’s two-hour Lost Americana spectacle at London’s O2 Arena where Colson Baker simply stops. “I know we have a strict 11pm curfew tonight but let me soak this in O2, let me soak this in,” he says, surveying the 17,000-strong crowd stretching from the floor to the nosebleeds. “If you’re in the building tonight this is very special, you only get to sell out The O2 for the first time one time and tonight is that night. This is ours, this one is for us.”
mgk @ The O2
It’s a rare pause in what is otherwise a relentlessly high-energy, often chaotic celebration of the artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly. And chaos is very much the point.
The scale of tonight’s production is clear from the outset. A towering faux Statue of Liberty dominates the stage, complete with a nose ring and an oversized cigarette clutched in her outstretched hand. As the opening bars of outlaw overture rumble through the arena, mgk emerges through the statue’s mouth, grabbing a guitar dangling from above. “London, let’s go! Are you ready for the best night of your fucking life!” he roars.
Flame boxes scattered around the criss-cross stage erupt as the band launches straight into starman, mgk bounding across the stage with microphone in hand before swapping seamlessly to guitar. It’s a pattern repeated all night: outfit changes, guitars appearing and disappearing, dancers weaving through the performance and bursts of pyro punctuating the spectacle.
“London, get on your feet, jump!” he demands — and the arena obliges instantly. “So this is what it looks like when you sell out The O2, huh?” he grins.
Musically, the show darts through the many eras of mgk’s career. Video interludes — featuring a tongue-in-cheek vlogger dissecting the different phases of Baker’s genre-jumping catalogue — provide breathers between segments.
A rap-heavy medley of maybe, Wild Boy and El Diablo reminds the crowd of his early hip-hop days, while Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker drives the band with thunderous precision throughout.
Travis Barker with mgk @ The O2
Barker’s propulsive rhythms underpin much of the set, particularly during dont wait run fast, even when mgk briefly loses his place. “I’m so sorry, I fucked that up,” he laughs, before powering through the rest of the track as guitarists Sophie Lloyd and Justin “Jus” Lyons shred beside him while flames shoot skyward.
Justin "Jus" Lyons & Sophie Lloyd with mgk @ The O2
“We’ve got a two-hour show for y’all tonight — that’s 38 songs. I need to see if those voices are ready!” Baker shouts before the rapid-fire medley arrives. The crowd clearly are.
The show frequently leans into the pop-punk era that transformed Baker’s career. Acoustic guitars frame the evolving lost americana-tinged arrangements scattered throughout the set, notably during starman that slips into large swathes of Third Eye Blind’s 1998 hit Semi‑Charmed Life — a playful nod that sends the crowd into a nostalgic singalong.
The Tickets To My Downfall portion of the show hits particularly hard.“To one of my favourite cities in the world, can I play this pink guitar” he asks, appearing behind a mic stand enclosed in an oversized prop cigarette, brandishing a his signature Schecter PT electric guitar as title track from the 2020 LP shifts from sparse slow-drive to beat-driven rousing. drunk face, bloody valentine and forget me too ignite huge reactions, with the latter featuring pre-recorded vocals from Halsey shimmering over the PA. Cigarettes are the theme throughout, the musician will undoubetdly face fines for smoking himself throughout the high-energy show.
mgk @ The O2
But it’s during bloody valentine, with fans invited on stage, that an excited audience member falls foul of the unique stage shape by stepping into a gap in the stage. The fan unhurt, mgk continues with the song before later gifting her a hat: “I wear this hat every fuckin’ day. My friend Icky made this hat for me, it’s special. It’s yours” he says placing the hat on her head.
“I like this view, but I think I’m gonna go over there,” mgk suddenly declares before diving off stage and sprinting through the arena floor toward the B-stage near the sound desk. From the smaller stage he strips things back with Glass House, rapping alongside the recorded voice of Naomi Wild. “This song is a song I wrote at one of my lowest times,” he tells the audience.
He soon pivots again, introducing new single times of my life with a heartfelt dedication: “I’m gonna remember this night for the rest of my life. This song is about nights like these, because I hope when you go home you’ll include tonight as one of the times of your life.”
In a spontaneous moment he segues into Fix You by Coldplay and Hey Jude by The Beatles, thousands of voices filling the arena. “We just decided to do that right before the show,” he shrugs. “Just wanted to show some love to a country that’s made some beautiful music that’s really lifted the spirit of my soul.”
Opening act Julia Wolf returns the to stage for a heartfelt cover of Goo Goo Dolls’ hit 1998 tune Iris, the pair rising above the stage on separate platforms. It’s an emotional high point before mgk cheekily follows it with treading water, which borrows heavily from the same chord progression.
Julia Wolf @ The O2
Then things swing wildly back to chaos. DAYWALKER arrives like a sonic sledgehammer before comedian Pete Davidson wanders on stage for roll the windows up. “Pete’s shooting a movie in your town,” mgk jokes. “He said he wants you to bother him, find his hotel and just stay outside and annoy him all day.”
“I’m in Mayfair, bitches!” Davidson grins.
Amid the spectacle, the most personal moment arrives during play this when i’m gone, as home videos of Baker’s daughter Casie fill the massive screen. “I miss when you were that old,” he says softly as a clip of her as a toddler appears. “This song is for those here with their loved ones, or anyone who’s ever loved something or someone.”
The mood doesn’t last long. During papercuts, his guitar spits sparks from the headstock as flames roar behind him — until the pyrotechnic briefly malfunctions. “It’s going wrong dude!” he laughs nervously before the effect finally dies out. “Hell yeah, if I’m gonna be burned alive I’d rather it be at this motherfuckin’ place.”
mgk @ The O2
The final stretch keeps the crowd roaring: the country-leaning Lonely Road, featuring recorded vocals from Jelly Roll (“Sing my buddy Jelly’s verse” mgk asks), followed by cliché, sweet coraline and the closing anthem vampire diaries.
For an artist who has spent much of his career shifting identities — rapper, rocker, provocateur — tonight feels like a milestone. Selling out The O2 for the first time clearly matters to him. And despite the genre hopping, the chaos and the self-deprecating humour, the sense of triumph is unmistakable.
For mgk, Thursday night in London isn’t just another stop on a tour. It’s a moment he intends to remember — and judging by the roar inside The O2, so will everyone else in the room.
Live review & photography of mgk @ The O2 Arena, London by Kalpesh Patel on 5th March 2026.
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