Concert Review: Young Fathers Hypnotize At Elsewhere
Going to the gender-neutral bathroom at Elsewhere, #yas, two guys were talking about the Young Fathers’ concert, of which one said something that stood out to me. “They were great! They were so punk!” Punk! This was the word that befuddled me because it did not feel like the right term, but yet it spoke to a right sentiment.
Similar to Jack White, Young Fathers’ show is like a happy celebration of sound. Noise never leaves the room, and it ignites a hypnosis over you, which is fascinating. You are, literally, being warped in and by their sonics, of which it is near impossible to hear, think, or feel anything beyond what tracks like, “Queen Is Dead,” “Rain Or Shine,” and “Only God Knows” provide. Watching them set up their sound was like having someone massage your mind; you were perplexed as to how a muscle that caused you so much stress was now putty in their hands. Yet, in perspective, I asked, “Where was the punk?”
Young Fathers – In My View (Official Video)
If anything, Young Fathers could be a Steampunk Ballroom cover for Vogue. There is a fashionable finesse to their machinated sounds that cause their synths, baselines, and snares to bolt, melt, and nail across iron plates. As I saw them hovel over their mix-tables and instruments, I kept on thinking of a factory, of which they were shredding, pressing, and covering music meat for re-distribution. They were so synchronized in their delivery yet free. Moving around the stage and causing occasional shadows with their figures to splash across their neon-lit back-drop. Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and G. Hastings all play their role in assuring from rapping to singing, the audience remain clearly pierced with emotion.
Young Fathers – Lord (Official Video)
Walking away from Young Fathers, show I genuinely felt I could never gain such a dynamic or similar aesthetic from another concert. They set up a show/ mood that is stylistic and revolutionary. Political and social commentaries are plugged into their songs like, “Dare Me,” “Shame,” and “Feasting,” as if they were apart of the electric wiring on the stage. Thus, their music pulps and pulses with manifestos on liberation, while you dance as if you never knew a spiritual or systemic chain. Maybe, that is where their “punk” allusion lies? They create a culture/ swag with their concert that tells the socially oppressed to rise and “Get Up.” For More Information On Young Fathers Click Here.
Young Fathers – Holy Ghost (Official Video)
