By Maddi Ference
Social Media Editor
Philadelphia’s Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing was filled with excited fans on Sept. 15 as they eagerly awaited Young the Giant’s arrival.
The audience danced and sang along while the openers, Joywave and Cold War Kids, warmed up the crowd, but the main attraction was the Indie-rock band from Irvine, California. Fans waited patiently, crammed as close to the stage as possible in hopes of getting the best view of the band.
When Young the Giant took the stage one by one, the audience erupted with screams and cheers as they knew the set would be one they would never forget. A faint piano riff played on repeat as the band got set, signaling “Amerika” as the opening track.
Jen Piserchia, a junior biomedical engineering major, is no newcomer to Young the Giant concerts.
She saw them in 2016 at the Fillmore, but raved about how this performance was exponentially better, solely based on the energy the band emitted to the crowd.
“They looked like they were just having an amazing time on stage and they just really bring that energy to the crowd,” Piserchia said. “I think that was a huge reason why that was so much fun and I just enjoyed it so much more than last year, even though last year I had an amazing time too.”
The band danced around the stage for over an hour, singing hits like “Cough Syrup” and “Something to Believe In.” The band also surprised die-hard fans with some classics from the band’s first album including “Apartment” and “Strings.”
But the band itself was not the only part of the set that kept audiences entertained. In the back of the stage sat an enormous triangular screen with two eyes on both the left and right sides of it. The screen showed changing images and colors that correlated with each different song. At one point, an outline of Carlton doing his signature dance from the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” appeared on the screen, leaving the audience laughing out loud for a moment rather than singing along.
“(The visuals) were just as much of a show as their songs were,” Piserchia said. “It was so cool to watch the backgrounds change and it really did reflect the band’s persona.”
Young the Giant slowed down the momentum for a few minutes in the middle of the set by playing a few acoustic songs. When the lead singer Sameer Gadhia announced the ballad “Firelight,” he asked the fans to each light a lighter or turn on their cellphone’s flashlight when the percussion came in, creating a beautiful, star-like sight among the darkened audience.
After bringing the energy level back up with a few more songs, Young the Giant walked offstage, but of course not without leaving a boisterous encore. The band closed out the night with its most popular song, “My Body,” leaving the audience satisfied with the night’s performance, but craving more shows equivalent to this in the future.
