We managed to get in perfectly on time to catch support band Boy Bleach. And while they’re still a relatively young band, we noticed already quite a few flags and signs dedicated to the band. The very emotionally laden poppy soft rock was quite a good fit as the warm up for YUNGBLUD and the guys threw their all into playing their songs for their gathered fans. While it was a pleasure to see the passion of the guitarists while pulling their strings, it was mostly their vocalist who pulled in most of the attention, restlessly pacing around, going on his knees while cranking out some pretty impressive vocal lines and melting the hearts of his fans at the first couple of rows and beyond. During one track the cell phone lights came out and you could see that the band felt fully embraced by the Finnish crowd even though it was their very first time playing here. Lovely start of the night!

From what I’ve heard and seen online, I expected YUNGBLUD to be a quite energetic and entertaining show. But nothing could have properly prepared me for how it actually is like… First of all, when the lights went out to reveal YUNGBLUD‘s silhouette, the room went bonkers. Secondly, as soon as YUNGBLUD came into proper view, he started riling up his army of fans with his boundless energy and continued to do so from start to finish. Kicking off in style, we got hit with the strongly punk tinged banger ‘Strawberry Lipstick’ that even I found myself singing along to. YUNGBLUD came with only a guitarist and drummer, but he didn’t need anyone else to fill up the stage since he ran back and forth from side to side taking up most of the available space and getting me tired by just looking at him go at it.

Running around, jumping around, dancing around, seeking connection with the crowd,… it’s been awhile since I last saw an artist as engaging as YUNGBLUD was. His energy and overall positive attitude towards everything delivered exactly what everyone was there for: a wholesome and uplifting night with some banging music! With songs expressing things going from feeling like an outsider to mental health issues to grievances with the world around us, it was so easy to click with what was going on here, even if you by any chance wouldn’t know all the material already by heart.

There were some pretty memorable moments throughout the show that made me smile and simply feel good about things, going from YUNGBLUD suddenly giving his guitarist a big kiss on the mouth to inviting some fans to come and dance with him on stage to getting into a real proper singalong with the crowd where everyone declared to want to ‘Kill Somebody‘ to YUNGBLUD stopping the show because he noticed a fan fainting and berating the security because they didn’t act fast enough to his liking. He regularly went into speeches about feeling like an outcast and that everyone is welcome at his shows no matter who they are, following the modern trend of inclusion and welcoming diversity without making it feel like a cheap thing, but actually pure and genuine. Near the end of the show, YUNGBLUD went into a rant about the gun situation in the USA because of the recent school shooting, urging everyone in the room to speak out about it despite being all the way in Finland, that we are the generation that needs to try to make a difference. If that isn’t damn inspiring and using your platform to good use, I don’t know what is. To wrap up his show completely, he told us to give him a good 20 minutes or so and that he’ll get outside to meet everyone.

Seriously, put all of that together and we’re certain that we’ve seen a future huge rockstar. The way he holds himself, the way he connects with not only the new generations, but generations from all ages and how his music is both challenging and catchy as hell, we feel we’ve seen the early steps in the rise of the new prince of modern rock here.