Young the Giant are Live Across Amerika and found themselves in the Nation’s Capitol
Young the Giant brought their Summer 2023 tour to a crowd of enthusiastic fans at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Washington, DC on Saturday night. It’s the beginning of the tour supporting their 2022 American Bollywood Album, the band’s latest release since Mirror Master four years earlier in 2018.
The group hasn’t been back to the DMV area since then, when they played at DC101’s Kerfuffle in 2019, although they were billed to perform as part of last year’s canceled Ocean’s Calling festival.
So, the yearning audience (myself included) finally got an overdue listen of both new tracks off of American Bollywood as well as ones from the group’s deep catalog.
Young the Giant started the night with some recent releases, including the album’s title track, “American Bollywood” and new crowd favorite “Wake Up”. The crowd erupted shortly after when the band’s lead singer Sameer Gahdia initiated one of their staples “Cough Syrup”.
The stage lighting was impressive and featured what looked to be a massive, Victorian fabric lampshade with a giant disco ball in its center.
Towards the end of the set, the ball dropped and created a mesmerizing visual at the impressive outdoor amphitheater at Merriweather. One of the most unique moments of the night occurred when Gahdia came out for an acoustic performance of Metropolis, which he described as an unreleased track that was written around the time of the band’s 2014 sophomore album Mind over Matter.
Young the Giant’s extended five-song encore closed out with “My Body” and brought eruption from the crowd capping off a long overdue stint in the Nation’s Capital.
Supporting Young the Giant was German Indie-Rock group Milky Chance, whose new album Living in a Haze dropped two days ago. The band, known for older indie songs like “Flashed Junk Mind” and “Cocoon” celebrated the release of their fourth studio album at a show in Boston.
The band played songs from this album, including their chantable “Colorado”, which was released earlier in the year, as well as the album’s title track “Living in a Haze”, currently making waves in alternative radio.
They were a great addition to the night’s lineup and wooed the crowd with fake-outs, an impressive harmonica solo, and tried-and-true songs from nearly a decade of making music.
Further supporting the night was Canada’s Nicholas Durocher, who goes by his stage name TALK. After gaining popularity last year for his song “Run Away to Mars,” TALK joins Milky Chance and Young the Giant on this tour through the tour’s stop in Kansas City.
While being light-hearted throughout most of his set (Crocs puns included) he spoke about the importance of self-love, a theme in an unreleased single “A Little Bit Happy” which he shared with the audience. TALK will continue with the tour through July.
The tour continues up the east coast to Philadelphia and New York, before heading out across America through August. There are still plenty of opportunities to catch this trio in action, so check their website for all of the upcoming tour dates.
See The Full Gallery of the Night Here!
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