2019 has been a really big year for Blood Youth so far. Their latest album Starve has seen the band move into a darker and heavier direction and their fans really have got on board with it. Earlier in the year they set out on a headline tour to celebrate its release that concluded in an oversold night at the Boston Music Room in London.
Palm Reader (8) were main support and it will come as no surprise that they were absolutely brilliant. With Braille the band have finally built up a solid fanbase here and they were out in force tonight. No longer are Palm Reader playing amazing sets to people who just don’t get it. Even those who weren’t really fans seemed to really get into it and moshed along to almost every song. What else can really be said about Palm Reader now. They are always fantastic and this was no different. The songs off Braille certainly get the best response which shows just how much this has been the album that has connected with people. The real exciting thing now is to see where Palm Reader go next.
It’s a tough act for Blood Youth (8) to follow but with the help of an over capacity Boston Music Room they manage. Drawing heavily from Starve as this tour was to promote the release of that album Blood Youth just deliver an hour of pure aggro mosh tunes. The nu metal influence on Starve is impossible to ignore but live it just works so well. It is far from the most sophisticated music out there and when compared to Palm Reader before them it certainly lacks nuance. But there is just something so satisfying about what Blood Youth are doing now. It’s just so unapologetic in its heaviness.
Of course this nu metal influence means there is a load of bounce in every track and Chris Pritchard delivers riff after riff perfectly crafted to just get the crowd moving. Kaya Tarsus also just happens to be such a genuine and likeable front man. This is a venue Blood Youth have headlined a few times and he seems genuinely blown away that it is now absolutely rammed with people going mad. His passion in each song feels very real and it’s certainly something that the fans have connected to.
There is very little included off their early EP’s this time round which shos how the band are looking to grow beyond them. This might have been slightly disappointing for long term fans but it’s clear they want to focus on the direction they have headed in on Starve. And when the likes of Spineless and Nerve just go so hard it’s totally understandable why. They wrap things up with the title track off Starve which gets plenty of stage dives and moshing going. Blood Youth continue to build up their reputation in the UK and if they can carry on at this quality hopefully they’ll be stepping onto bigger stages soon.
