‘Holy. Fucking. Shit.’
That, in a nutshell, is the standard reaction to a YUNGBLUD live show. It was the reaction of One on One‘s plus-one (ed: One on Two?) after approximately thirty seconds of his hour-long set. It was the reaction of the kindly older gentleman stood next to this humble reporter, whom one can only assume was chaperoning one of the numerous screaming teens ‘n’ tweens that had taken up residence outside the venue’s front doors since seven o’clock that morning.
Most importantly, it was the reaction of this humble writer as he witnessed the sight of 1500 fanatical young people leap, bound and bounce around a glorified nightclub for an hour and a half as their hero – a 20-year-old guy from Doncaster – zooms across the stage in a knee-length dress to the strains of some of the most unequivocally extraordinary alt-rock music that this reviewer has heard for many a year.
Allow us to explain.
You see, YUNGBLUD isn’t like most singers.
Sure, he’s got a veritable army of teen ‘n’ tween fans, but that doesn’t make him a pop star. He’s not preened beyond belief, nor is he conventionally pretty. He has also, quite clearly, not been media-trained to within an inch of his life.
Instead, he’s a friggin’ rock star. He arrives wearing a fishnet dress, and proceeds to bound and prance around the stage like it’s his family home of many a year. He jumps around like a madman and snogs his guitarist at any – and, indeed, every – given moment. And… Well, to quote the opening track of his debut album, he ‘just doesn’t give a fuck, really‘.
That, dear reader, is probably our favourite thing about YUNGBLUD.
No, it’s not the fact that he dresses like every angsty emo kid’s alt-rock-dream boy; nor is it the fact that he’s capable of putting on the kind of live show that both looks and feels like you’ve been punched in the face by Mike Tyson.
It’s not even the fact that his songs are Absolutely Bloody Brilliant: in fact, we defy you to find a stronger set of pop-punk songs than those that YUNGBLUD oh-so-casually popped out into the world in the form of his 2018 debut album, 21st Century Liability.
No, dear reader, it’s the fact that YUNGBLUD is precisely the kind of rock star that the world desperately needs right now. He dedicates King Charles to ‘FUCKIN’ THERESA MAY!’, complete with the kind of snarl that Johnny Rotten himself would be proud of; he leaps around like a man possessed; and, most importantly, he tells the crowd that it’s okay to be exactly, entirely, and unapologetically themselves.
To you and I, he’s merely a monumentally talented singer and songwriter; but, to the kids who’ve been camping outside the doors of Bristol’s SWX since the early hours of the morning, he may well be a lifesaver.