Since I saw Young the Giant open for Marina & the Diamonds earlier this year their self-titled album has been in heavy rotation on my iPod, so I was super excited that they were coming back to town. I love getting the chance to see a band at that moment in time where they are number one in your mind and the potential for a great evening is endless. Add on top of that a good venue and great opener in Geographer and I was confident I would not be disappointed.
This was a Popscene vs Loaded dance night, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience. Because Young the Giant had just played a small show as opener, I didn’t expect there to be much of a crowd, but oh was there! At first I thought it might be people here to see the opener Geographer, since they are local, but that was not the case. Geographer certainly did have their fans there, screaming out requests and dancing along, but when Young the Giant’s lead singer Sameer Gadhia came to the side of the stage to watch Geographer, all the girls around me seemed to go all jelly-iod, pointing and giggling in a mess of hormones. Okay, that sounded harsher than I meant it; I’ve been in lust with my fair share of musicians, but I had no idea that this band was so popular. Lesson learned for the night. I am completely out of touch with what 18-20 year old girls are into.
Despite the Sameer distraction, Geographer did an excellent job opening the show. They have a great sound with keyboards/synths, guitar, electric cello and drums. They oscillate between straight up pop music and a rougher indie rock sound. All the band members were on point. The drummer Brian Ostreicher was amazing, keeping me moving through their whole set, but of course the stong melodic cello lines were my favorite part, and it probably helped that I was standing right next to the cello monitor. The band seemed very excited and talked about how they were just invited to do a tour opening for Stars, and they certainly deserve more exposure. I would be happy to see them play the Filmore and see if they can win over that crowd like they did last night at Rickshaw.
As good as Geographer was, it was a whole different game when Young the Giant came on stage. At first it was the girls going wild, a particularly drunk one jumping on my friend’s back trying to get closer to the stage. The furious energy was never to stop for the whole show, not only from the audience, but from the band as well. They jump and dance around like nobody’s business, getting more and more excited as the show went on.
Musically the set was good, opening with “Apartment” the lead track from their just released album, and continuing with most of that album’s songs, with a couple newer and older ones mixed in. Young the Giant is excellent at crafting a catchy rock song, and that combined with their energy on stage makes for a good time. As the drunk girls tired of screaming for Sameer, the more hardcore male fans seemed to take over at the front of the stage. I haven’t seen such enthusiastic male headbanging, chanting and fist pumping in a long time, or at all in recent memory. Maybe at a Smashing Pumpkins or Weezer show in the 90’s? If the audience last night was a good barometer, Young the Giant is going to do very well.
The band left the stage after about an hour set, ending with the amazing track “My Body,” to which everyone around me screamed along. They did not come back for an encore despite the crowd chanting “One more song! One more song!” But thinking through the set they’d already played all the big songs off the album: “Apartment,” “I Got,” “St Walker,” “Cough Syrup,” and “My Body” so I’m not sure what the fans expected. Really it was better that way; mention you’re selling your cd in the back, play the best song off of it with amazing energy and leave everyone wanting more. Well played Young the Giant, well played.
Well, they definitely won over the Fillmore crowd last night.