YUNGBLUD: A New Breed of Artist

Dominic Harrison from Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, is professionally known as YUNGBLUD. His music is a blend of styles—including hip-hop, dancehall, ska, and rock—with influences from bands such as The Clash, Oasis. and Arctic Monkeys.

I was first exposed to YUNGBLUD last summer on the Merriweather Post Pavilion leg of the Vans Warped Tour (July 29, 2018). He had a lot of buzz surrounding him, as his album 21st Century Liability had just dropped on July 6, 2018 and was doing quite well. He was so energetic and charismatic on stage, moving from the right to left—playing to the crowd—for the entire performance. I was also pleasantly surprised with his vocals…he can move from rapping to singing beautiful melodies—the guy has pipes!

YUNGBLUD’s lyrics are far from fluff. His songs and videos are poetic odes that tackle political and social issues such as medication, gun control, societal expectations, and more. He is already resonating with today’s youth, advocating for the LGBTQ+, women, and those struggling with mental health.

YUNGBLUD has gained traction within the last year and is continuing to pick up speed. He has collaborated with Charlotte Lawrence on “Falling Skies” (season two soundtrack of 13 Reasons Why), with Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker on “I Think I’m OKAY,” and with Halsey and Travis Barker on “11 Minutes.” His most recent collaboration dropped in early October for “Original Me” with Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons.

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Fast-forward to today—I was so excited to cover YUNGBLUD at his sold-out show at the 9:30 Club on October 17th.

MISSIO was the supporting band, and I was actually pretty psyched to see them as well. I’d first caught them at DC101’s Kerfuffle in 2017; but, at that point, the only song of theirs I knew was their radio-played song about flipping the bird (“Middle Fingers”).

As the duo took the stage (with a touring drummer to support), they immediately got the crowd warmed up. Front-man Matthew Brue executed most of the vocals, while David Butler played keys and guitar and lent back-up vocals. Though MISSIO writes about serious issues that are personal to them—depression, anxiety, anger, addiction—the heavy subject matter is usually set to an upbeat sound. Brue’s melodic voice over their pop-rock, electronic sound resonated with the audience and had nearly everyone dancing.

Fan favorites such as “Twisted,” “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea,” and “Rad Drugz” (my own personal favorite) were played. “I See You” was a song that seemed to resonate with the young crowd, especially after Matthew delivered a mini monologue on how you can sometimes feel invisible to the world. Once MISSIO finished their set, I feel like they’d gained several new fans that hadn’t previously been aware of the band or their song catalog.

It was now time for YUNGBLUD to take the stage. The venue went dark, “YUNGBLUD” was projected onto the stage wall, and the audience could hear chatter on a two-way radio/walkie-talkie that sounded like a crew staking out YUNGBLUD’s whereabouts. Then, two guys in pink ski masks and pseudo-military uniforms took the stage with flags that they placed centerstage. YUNGBLUD and his bandmates (touring drummer and guitarist) burst onstage and immediately went into “21st Century Liability.” True to form, YUNGBLUD was jumping up and down and running from side-to-side of the stage. The stage was brightly lit, highlighting YUNGBLUD’s antics to the far corners of the 9:30 Club.

Early on in the show, YUNGBLUD seemed to be overwhelmed by the adoring fans, stopping to clap his hands to his mouth, shine his trademark grin, and maybe even blush. This only incited more screaming from the audience. It was all kind of adorable, and made you realize that, even though he’s a rising star, he is still relatively young and seems to be a bit humble and not part of “the machine” yet.

At one point, YUNGBLUD made his way to the center of the venue floor, escorted by security and handlers, where he played guitar and sang. He said that he wants to be able to eliminate barriers between himself and the audience so that everyone can be up close and personal with the music.

He then made his way back onstage and continued with his hyper-active performance. During the onset of a song, YUNGBLUD had noticed a female being harassed and called on the boys to stop their behavior and give some respect. After calling them out three times from the stage—and the boys still not heeding the pleas—YUNGBLUD then called on security to address the issue and kick the offending males out of the venue. Once the issue was resolved, YUNGBLUD continued on with the performance, leaving only a blip of the incident in anyone’s minds.

At another point, YUNGBLUD kept punk tradition alive by stage-diving into the crowd, where willing fans caught him and tossed him around.

YUNGBLUD concluded his show by saying that his new album The Underrated Youth was dropping at midnight, that he was going to be out in the alley of the club, and that everyone should join him to get a first listen.

NOTE: I ended up going to the “listening party,” which was relocated to the 9:30 Club parking lot where YUNGBLUD held a speaker over his head, playing songs such as “Casual Sabotage” from his new album, for the surrounding fans to listen and sing along with. It was a neat little experience, albeit hard for a short person to see, as he was surrounded by a circle of fans. He wasn’t able to play the record in its entirety and had to leave after a handful of songs, but he thanked the fans as he was escorted to his tour bus.

Enjoy photos of both MISSIO and YUNGBLUD performing at the 930 Club on Thursday, October 17th. All photos copyright and courtesy of Deanna Escobar.