Gang Of Youths have found their new home!
Rock Sins headed to the O2 Academy Brixton to catch one of the finest Australian exports since AC/DC. If you are not aware of Gang of Youths they are multi ARIA award-winning, arena-filling band back in their native Australia. Flying high off the back of their first top 10 UK album, Angel In Realtime sees them break through into the mainstream. With a sold out UK tour reaching its pinnacle at the legendary Brixton Academy, we catch a band who are truly on top of the world.
Opening with the track the angel of 8th ave, all band members and crew stand on the edge of the stage clapping the rhythm. You can feel the enthusiasm radiating from each band member. The ever excitable frontman David Le’aupepe has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. If he wasn’t an incredible frontman he could be a contender for the world’s best dad dancer. Whipping the crowd into a frenzy with indie banger after indie banger, the set reached a crescendo by its 6th song. Le’aupepe brings the crowd back down to earth with the ballad Brothers, with him alone at the piano on Brixton’s massive stage with a 5000 strong crowd hanging on his every word. Le’aupepe explains that even though it is a triumph day for his band, it is marred with a sense of sadness as he had just come straight from the vets after putting his dog down of 16 years.
Fan favourites Let Me Down Easy and Magnolia (Le’aupepe crowd surfing into the middle of the room) amp the crowd up to eleven, the audience screaming along with every word. Considering the new album has only been out for just over two weeks, fans sang along with the new songs (all 9 new songs that featured in the set). However the biggest crowd participation came from the new song, in the wake of your leave with the audience singing the hook long after the gig ended. (see the video on their social media pages)
Confetti cannons, crowd surfing, rapturous crowd sing alongs, Gang of Youths left everything on that London stage. Are they finally reaping the success they have in Australia to the UK? It would appear so. It will certainly be interesting to see where the band go next, could they play arenas? I totally believe that it is doable for the Aussies. Things are on the up for Gang of Youths and we love to see it!
Check out the gallery below to see more pictures from the night.