Concert Review: Yak Give “Fried Punk” To Rough Trade

Going to a Yak show is like going into a punk bar in Liverpool. As they played Rough Trade, I kept on thinking what it would have been like to see The Clash play for the first time. When I talk about punk or indie rock, I always discuss how it was born from working class issues, but the Yak show it is more so the response of the working classes’ children to their parents’ social issues. 

Every generation inherits the world from the previous one, and the reason punk will never die is because we cannot seem to inherit a better world. (lol!) It is as if humanity has hardened from its own poor behavior and given on up on changing it, but still cannot stop complaining about it. For Yak, its change or shut up! Obviously, with a bullhorn in hand, Yak is going for CHANGE! The result is a show that qualifies more as a showdown. With an intensity infused into tracks like, “Encore,” “White Male Carnivore,” and “Fried,” lead singer Oliver Burslem became a protest leader of sorts. 

Punk and indie are rock are known as “riot” genres, but a riot is not unadulterated anger; it has a reason. You spark mass chaos because you have been systemically targeted. With this in mind, Oli moves the crowd as if he is within them. He sings, speaks, and physicalizes their frustrations; coming towards them like an equal outcast who has had enough of living in the trenches. Now we are becoming our parents, but are not as easily accepting to barrels of work with little pay, no rights, and no respect. Thus, from “Layin’ It On The Line” to “Bellyache,” he has a manipulative charm; enjoying and feeding the cheers and dances as if his guitar strings are the crowd’s puppet strings, but he is only moving them to release our stresses.

After awhile, anyone can get tired of moving like a puppet, and Burslem’s steady voice approaches verses like the philosophical scripts of a twenty-something eager to either heal this world or burn it down. Every young person understands this divide. Not only do we have to use our time on our earth to figure ourself out, but we also have to use it to figure out this earth. It is a hefty role and Yak are willing to take it on. For More Information On Yak Click Here.