I had already seen Youngblood Hawke during their Monday residency at the Satellite last October, and I had immediately thought this happy jumping tribe had some chances to be the next great pop thing, and just three or four days ago, their video for their hit ‘We Come Running’ was featured in Rolling Stone!
But for now they are still a local band and they were playing at the massive event organized on Saturday, Echo Park Rising, taking the Taix restaurant's outdoor stage a little before 8 pm to play one pop anthem after another,… and people became nuts for them.
They probably plan their shows as an aerobic session, watching the six of them who couldn’t stay a second at the same place. It was particular true for frontman Sam Martin (or may be there is no real frontman in this band), who was the most agitated one, jumping around like a jack-in-the-box. Yeah, willing to move and have fun seem totally recommended when attending one of their shows.
Their sing-along-high-energy songs were working great on the young crowd, as all of them were putting all their strength into it, especially when Martin and some of the rest of the band, Simon Katz, Tasso Smith, Alice Katz, Nik Hughes had these outbursts of synchronized drumming episodes, which were happening in regular waves. They were a little bit like OK Go (for the fun and the beats) meets the Polyphonic Spree (for the grand ensemble choral effect and the life celebration) meet Sesame Street if it was a band (I don’t know, but there was something a little childish and cherubic about their combined vocals).
Their set was like a shower of sunshine and brightness on an already sunny and bright day, a rush of positive feelings on people already having a good time. They simply did it with synths, congos and electric guitars but a complete fun-loving attitude coated with sweet optimism belonging to an tireless youthful dynamism. It is true that, with songs that explode with choruses saying ‘Wake up Dannyboy, there’s a world outside’ over super bouncy rhythms, they are difficult to resist and I guarantee you will see yourself foot tapping to their infectious invitations to having fun no matter what, and soon jumping with the rowdy crowd… you could say that they have used about the same formula for all their mood-boosting tunes: outbursts of positive-high energy, poppy-uplifting hooks, bombast-sing-along choruses, lots of clapping, danceable grooves and muscular beating on front drums, but the happy gang had more never-ending summer anthems than the crowd could endure. Youngblood Hawke people are you ever depressed?
Setlist
Rootless
Dannyboy
In our Blood
Come Looking
Protect Yourself
We Come Running
Forever
Glacier
