BY ANOUR ESA // After Ra Ra Riot’s energizing opening set, the already full 9:30 Club gets even more packed, all in wait for Young the Giant. This was the band’s third sold-out night in a row at the 9:30 Club, which is not too surprising given how popular the band has become in the past few years. The lights dim, and a guy walks on stage, wearing a golden glittery jacket with a piece of paper. He’s definitely not in the band. Some people yell, “Who are you?” but most of the crowd is listening with curiosity. The man opens his mouth and lays down some pretty impressive poetry for the crowd to a mixed reaction. He then says, “Let’s get on with the show” before walking off stage. This crowd is aggressively eager for Young the Giant. Shortly after, the band casually walks on stage and a band member thanks his brother (ohhhh) for his set-opening poetry.
Singer and frontman Sameer Gadhia makes a brief introduction and then says “It’s our third night, so let’s just get it started already.” This launches the band into their first song of the night, “Jungle Youth”, and proceeding to make the crowd go wild. The band dives directly into their next song, “I Got”, jumping two albums back to their self-titled album, the first recorded under the name Young The Giant. What struck me most is just how good Young the Giant is at performing their songs from two albums ago. They have the same intensity, authenticity and musicianship that made their self-titled album such a hit. Looking around me, I could tell that the crowd was a definite mix of very old fans, dating back to when the band was called The Jakes, and newer fans that had been intoxicated by the refreshing experience that each Young the Giant album has brought with it.
Regardless, everyone went nuts for the entirety of the show. At one point, Gadhia gets 95 percent of the venue to wave their arms to a song in perfect unison. Props. Gadhia still does his own artform of arm waving/dancing, and it’s as goofy/charming as ever. The band rocks the house with “Something To Believe In”, and threads the concert with older songs from both previous albums. If I were to use a run on sentence to describe Young the Giant live in concert, I would say that the band puts out soothing, catchy, and satisfying tunes that are easy to sing along to but have an undisputed level of meaning and musicianship to them which connects them to a rewardingly wide and diverse audience.
TL;DR: Young the Giant is better than ever, and still knows how to put on high-caliber live performances.
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