Young the Giant

“Indianapolis! Have we got a show for you tonight!”  This was how Young the Giant frontman Sameer Gadhia opened their show at the Murat Egyptian Room (okay, ‘Old National Centre’, but most locals will always refer to it as the Murat) on Tuesday, July 10th, and they lived up to it.  They started off their set with “I Got”, followed by “Guns Out”, both off their first and only album, 2010’s self-titled release.  Then they played a new song called “What You Get”, a great song that the whole band rocked hard on.  After that, the group did several more songs off their first album, including “Strings”, a lovely song that Gadhia said, “Is about home, or at least reminds us of it.”  Speaking of home, he also said at one point, “The grass is always greener; when we’re on the road we want to be home, and when we’re at home, we want to be on the road”-an understandable sentiment probably shared by lots of musicians. 

Another new song, “Camera”, was slow and beautiful, with Gadhia playing keyboard as well as singing (at other times he played the tambourine).  The stage was dark and bathed in soft blue light, which added lovely atmosphere.  That atmosphere was continued into the next song, “St. Walker”, with green instead of blue light.  “St. Walker” has a powerful, haunting sound, finished off with lots of jamming.  The band then left the stage.  The space between the main set and encore was filled with a low, continuous beep, which was rather annoying, but the only bad thing one could possibly say about the show.  Fortunately, they soon returned, starting off the encore with a brand new, never-before-played-live song, called “Teachers”, and the band really rocked out on this one.  That was followed by “Islands”, a very slow song, which although nice to listen to, was agonizing to wait through when you know “My Body” just had to be next-and sure enough, at last they played that fun, exciting hit which had most of the crowd putting their hands in the air and singing, or rather, shouting along.

July 10th the day of the show, happened to be Gadhia’s 23rd birthday, and what a way to celebrate.  The band put on an epic performance, led by Gadhia’s powerful vocals, backed by heavy drumming by Francois Comtois and great guitar playing by Jacob Tilley, Eric Cannata, and Payam Doostzadeh on bass.  Gadhia is very energetic and knows how to engage the audience, and dances wildly around the stage on the more upbeat songs.  Gadhia and Tilley came to the very edge of the stage and stood on light boxes during a couple of songs, to the excitement of the crowd up front. 

If Young the Giant does a show near you, don’t miss it! They put on a fantastic performance and are definitely worth seeing live.

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 Click here for photos of The Apache Relay from this show in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery

The opening act, The Apache Relay, also put on a fun show.  Much like Sameer Gadhia, their lead singer is very lively and dances a lot, and he too has a lovely voice.  Their music is actually somewhat similar to Young the Giant, but still unique, even featuring a fiddle and a mandolin on some songs.  The lead singer of The Apache Relay said, “This is the best show we’ve had all year!”  Maybe he said that to every city, but you never know…