Four short days after playing at LIVE105's sold-out BFD Youngblood Hawke ROCKED their headlining set at
Popscene (A.K.A The Rickshaw Stop) on May 23rd!
A good chunk of time passed after openers
Pacific Air warmed up the gathering crowd and as we waited I took note that Youngblood Hawke had a backdrop on stage for their set. I appreciate this becauase lesser known bands usually don't make the effort to help people remember the name of their band. Well played
Youngblood Hawke.
15 minutes behind schedule the emerging LA based Bohemian-Indie band exploded on to the stage minutes before the clock struck midnight and they didn't waste
anytime getting their party started!
The exuberant carefree energy from lead singer Sam Martin was inescapable as he got the crowd dancing right off the bat and just like that the second song of their set, "
Dannyboy "started before I noticed that the first song had ended.
Border lining on being the title track off their debut album,
Wake Up '"Dannyboy's" chant-like chorus lines
"Wake up, Danny boy, there's a world outside A world outside your window Wake up" had just about everyone chiming in via voice and/or clap-along.
Pausing to take in the moment of pure enjoyment, I realized I might be the only person there who didn't know the words but I had been seduced into dancing from the get go so I don't think anyone (else) noticed.
Sam Martin's brief breather to introduce the third song of the set
"In Our Blood" didn't last long as Simon Katz took over the opening vocals Martin never stopped moving around and was back on his mic without slowing down. Simply watching Youngblood Hawke's front man will wear you out, the guy seriously never stops moving! Watching him in action on stage certainly amplifies the band's live performance and gets fans dancing.
"Dreams" was a nice interlude of a slower tempo welcomed I'm sure by the sweat drenched Sam Martin. The sharing of drum sticks and drumming during this song added yet another element to their show that made you want to watch and see what they'd do next.
What was next you ask? Well a lovely transition to Alice Katz on lead vocals of course! Youngblood Hawke managed to cover it all, even acknowledging the fact that it smelled like Amsterdam inside San Francisco's premier Indie club!
Popscene's home,
The Rickshaw Stop is one of the a smaller venues in SF with an equally smaller stage but Youngblood Hawke's crazy stage presence puts "bigger bands" on bigger stages to shame.This being said it is surprising that the show last Thursday night wasn't sold out however it was a definite plus to have the extra wiggle room on the dance floor!
On tour in support of their debut album
Wake Up, (available now!) Youngblood Hawke's set was of course all about those tracks but beneath the surface there is something more to this quintessential Indie band. According to Katz he and Martin left Iglu & Hartly because “We didn’t like the direction the band was going in, and we wanted to do something closer to our hearts." If you can't hear the heartfeltness on the album you'll surely believe it when you see Youngblood Hawke live!
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