Years & Years at the 9:30 Club (review)
Years & Years kept the crowd alternately riveted and frenzied
Every time Olly Alexander mentioned D.C. — and he mentioned D.C. quite a bit — during the Years & Years concert at the 9:30 Club Saturday night, the crowd responded with gleeful delirium. The 25-year-old singer clearly knows how to stoke his audience. And in a quick yet satisfying set that lasted just over an hour, Alexander and bandmates — bassist Mikey Goldsworthy, keyboardist Emre Türkmen and drummer Dylan Bell — kept the crowd alternately riveted and frenzied.
It’s no secret why Years & Years is on such a sudden, meteoric rise: they compose fantastically catchy melodies and concoct dynamically rich arrangements that often call to mind the best bits of the ’70s and ’80s. Additionally, their music is unmistakably British by design — a sound that’s as danceable as it is captivating.
Years & Years is incredibly lucky to have unearthed Alexander as frontman. Though fundamentally a tenor, he has a remarkably impressive range, and even though there’s still a bit of an adolescent quality to his vocals, richness and depth peer through the vocal veneer. It’ll be interesting to see how his voice evolves over the next decade. Sporting bleach blond locks and a camouflage t-shirt, Alexander performed with the kind of sheer, unabashed joy and spirit that brought to light a comment made in a recent interview with this magazine: “I’m trying to make the most of it while I can.”
The 9:30 Club proved a perfect venue for Alexander and company to make the most of it, as the club’s pristine sound allowed Years & Years’ understated, nuanced arrangements to emerge in full form without distortion or muddle. Alexander was in perfect voice — no more sumptuously than on the hit, “Desire,” a stunning, anthemic nod to the ’70s. By the time the group got to “Shine,” midway through, they were in full throttle, though Alexander had occasional trouble keeping up with the song’s complex phrasing. The band’s encore, and debut hit, “King,” closed the evening on a rapturous note.
A small gathering with the band following the performance revealed a humble, almost deferential Alexander, someone a bit dazed that the spotlight is shining so brightly on him. What’s clear is that the unprepossessing singer/songwriter is taking his career seriously enough to deliver the goods in full, without a shred of arrogance or entitlement. Alexander seems genuinely humbled by the band’s meteoric success.
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