REVIEW: TYLER, THE CREATOR TRANSFORMS SYDNEY WITH 'CHROMAKOPIA: THE WORLD TOUR'

Image: Supplied.

Last night, GRAMMY Award winning artist Tyler, The Creator turned Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena in to a pulsing, fluorescent dreamworld. Touring on the back of Chromakopia and Don’t Tap The Glass, Tyler delivered not just a concert, but a meticulously curated spectacle. Part art installation, part therapy session, part rave, Chromakopia: The World Tour is a feast for the senses.

Special guests Paris Texas and Lil Yachty got the crowd ready with their gripping sets, with the latter facing technical issues. Both acts got the packed crowd heated, creating engaging sets that kept the audience hungry for more. 

Tyler walks on stage alone. Drenched in fire-red leather, pacing the length of the stage like a general surveying his battleground. From the second he launched into Big Poe, flanked by bursts of fire and bass so deep it made the walls hum, the crowd knew: this wasn’t going to be a normal rap show.

This wasn’t just a show; it was a reckoning with legacy. Don’t Tap the Glass and Chromakopia may be newer entries in his catalogue, but Tyler wove them alongside Flower Boy, Call Me If You Get Lost, and even earlier cuts with ease. Like Him became a choral moment of unity. She brought the nostalgia. EARFQUAKE sounded, somehow, even more heartbreaking with the weight of time behind it. Throughout the show, Tyler almost serves as a maestro, conducting the crowd and moving them between sections of heat, intimacy, frenzy and quiet. His theatrical stage presence filled the arena, drawing the crowd in and captivating their attention. Circle its broke out on the arenas floor (at one point a fan walked around, emulating Tyler’s own presence), people got on top of each others shoulders, and for one brief moment there was even a crowd surfer. It was in these moments, there was something biblical that pulsated throughout the arena. 

The expertly crafted setlist highlights the musicians, entire catalogue, whilst primarily leaning heavily into Chromakopia, - an album lauded for its contradictions; collapsing genres and emotionally driven chaos. Sticky brought the sensuality of a hot summers day. Songs like St. Chroma and Rah Tah Tah exploded with heat and grime, the latter prompting a kind of ecstatic violence in the mosh pits. But even in the eye of this storm, Tyler’s control was unshakeable. He barked instructions mid-song, teased the audience, cracked jokes ("zShout out to all the parents whose back hurt feet hurt wanna get the fuck home," he quips), and somehow still hit every verse with surgical precision. 

The musicians set design this tour is nothing short of iconic: a towering stack of neon-green shipping containers, smoke curling from their seams, screens beaming out multi-cam split-screen shots that captured the performance in an enigmatic and surreal vision. Stark text directives like “Body movement. No sitting still,” and “Only speak in glory. Leave your baggage at home,” flashed on-screen It’s both playful and authoritarian, much like Tyler himself. Pyrotechnics flood the stage throughout, including a shower of sparks during the shows closing number, Like Him. 

And yet, for all the scale and design, it was the quieter moments that truly landed. Midway through the set, he took a seat at the edge of the stage. No effects. No fireworks. Just sharing stories before sliding into Judge Judy, a track so intimate it seemed to slow time inside the arena. It’s in these moments that Tyler sets himself apart. Few artists could transition so seamlessly between the bombastic nature of NEW MAGIC WAND and Noid, shaking the rafters, and the vulnerable moments of Are We Still Friends?. Fewer still could do it solo, with no gimmicks to fall back on.

There are concerts that impress, and then there are concerts that possess you. Tyler, The Creator’s Sydney show falls in to the latter: audacious, deeply weird, unexpectedly moving, and utterly unforgettable. In a world oversaturated with polished but empty live acts, Tyler delivered something rare, a night that felt dangerously alive.