Smiles, screams, and joyful tears filled Toyota Music Factory when Dominic Harrison, also known as YUNGBLUD, stormed through town. Sprinting onto the stage wearing his classic pink socks and steampunk sunglasses, and having probably the biggest grin in the world plastered across his face, Harrison brought an immense amount of energy perfectly matched by the crowd. He’s expressed before that he is only half of YUNGBLUD, which was truly apparent that night. Anything he sang, the crowd sang too. Anything he chanted, the crowd chanted back. And any emotion he felt, the crowd felt just the same.
Harrison first electrified the stage with “21st Century Liability,” the title track of the genre-bending album that sent him into stardom, in a way, paying his respects to both the music and the people that got him to where he is today. He then jumped right into present-day YUNGBLUD with “The Funeral” and “Tissues” played back-to-back. The opening three songs provided a good preview of the night, indicating that fans would get to hear songs across Harrison’s discography. From his second album, weird!, fans got to hear “Parents,” a song that lies at the core of the YUNGBLUD dogma, and “Strawberry Lipstick,” a cheeky, kick drum-driven love song.
Mid-set is when Harrison chose a young fan from the barricade to bring on stage and pick a song off 21st Century Liability for the band to play. While being given the choice between “Psychotic Kids” and “Medication,” the fan jumped up and down, overcome with excitement, and Harrison playfully jumped up and down in response. There was a moment when the fan looked to the crowd for some guidance, to which Harrison said, “Fuck them, you’re the one up here, what do you want to hear?”, essentially reminding the fan of the YUNGBLUD approach to life: don’t let the opinions of others stop you from doing what you want to do. The fan picked the former, and the crowd seemed just as excited.
Leading into the last bit of the set, his band, made up of Adam Warrington on guitar, Silke Blansjaar on bass, and Ben Sharp on drums, left the stage for a bare bones, acoustic guitar-only solo version of “Kill Somebody.” There wasn’t even a backing track playing. This stripped back rendition of an already instrumentally minimal song allowed the range and roughness of Harrison’s vocals to rip through the atmosphere of the venue. During the bridge of the song, Harrison reverted to only playing the guitar, giving the audience a chance to sing back to him, and this is the moment he started tearing up. Again, Harrison is only half of YUNGBLUD; he knows it, and he’s not afraid to express his gratitude.
The night ended with a two-song encore consisting of recent single “Lowlife” and previous hit single “Loner,” two YUNGBLUD essentials. YUNGBLUD’s message of finding community amongst those outcast by mainstream society has curated a mostly young crowd (along with their cool mums and dads) who the message speaks to the most, and in a state like Texas where LGBTQ+ rights are specifically under attack, a YUNGBLUD concert is a perfect place for forgetting about the pains of life and living in the moment. Ending with these two songs and an on-stage dance party with a handful of fans was the perfect end to an incredibly empowering night.
Now that the North American leg of YUNGBLUD: The World Tour is complete, fans on the continent will have to get their YUNGBLUD fix through digital content, such as the “Lowlife” music video which just released a few days ago. For fans across the pond, YUNGBLUD has some massive upcoming festival appearances, including Summer Well in Romania, Cabaret Vert in France, Pukkelpop in Belgium, and Lowlands in Netherlands.
