Live Review
Young Kato + Youth Club
The Garage, London
October 7 2016
Words/Photos: Jess Sharrock
Friday evening in north London's Garage sees the final night of Young Kato’s UK tour and a sold out show. Both they and support Youth Club have a lot of celebrating to do.
Youth Club definitely embrace the spirit with some great tunes and killer dance moves (lead singer, Gerrard, I’m talking to you!). The Southend-on-Sea four-piece kicked off their set with a number of infectiously rhythmic and colourful songs, including ‘Breathe’, ‘Filling It Up To Go’ - both taken from their aptly named 2014 EP ‘Colours’ - ‘I’ll Give You My All’ and ‘People’. The edgy, feelgood indie-pop of newly released single ‘Sorry’, proves a definite crowd pleaser, before closing on ‘Pressure’ and the oh-so-catchy ‘She’s A Dancer’.
This is the second time I have seen Youth Club and they consistently put on a great show and a tight set. Creatively vibrant and effortlessly charismatic, they demonstrate many styles, soulful vocals, indie-pop choruses and catchy guitar hooks. Without a doubt, they won over a lot of new fans tonight and provided all the right elements to warm up the evening.
Young Kato, the six-piece from Cheltenham, arrive fresh with a new EP - ‘One. Two. Three. Four.’ - and offering new, more grown-up sound which is heard in tonight's set via the EP and ‘Sweet Desire’, which sees the crowd go wild for both. Luckily for the long-standing fan they also played a number of songs from their debut album such as ‘Remedy’ and ‘Stephanie’. Live favourite ‘Drink Dance Play’ brought out the crowd chants along to the chorus, and dancing bodies to the vibe of ‘Sunshine’, before closing the set with ‘I Wanna Shake You Out Of It’, another song from the new EP, and which those fans with any energy left let rip on.
“A new chapter has begun,” frontman Tommy Wright had informed the room mid-set, and with their new sound that could well be the case. I am, however, quite sure they have the same strong backing from the army of teenage girls as they have had for the past few years, who are all still happily hanging onto Tommy’s every word. The stage was small, especially with all six band members squeezed onto it, but the set was big, with a lot of noise and a lot of lights. I’m just not sure it was all good. Tommy seemed to be trying out a little Alex Turner crossed with Morrissey swag, but you feel he’s not quite there yet. Unfortunately, the rest of the band seemed to disappear behind a smoke screen of Tommy’s personality so that it seemed a little more like 'Tommy Wright... and his band', and less a group effort. But there's no getting away from Young Kato having a bag full of catchy songs and can manage to leave a crowd happy.
But for this reviewer, tonight at The Garage was all about one band. Very rarely do I go to a gig and enjoy the support act more than the main act. Young Kato did a great job, but for me Youth Club brought it home.
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