February 7, 2022

​

​

Dominic Harrison, better known as Yungblud, brought his Life on Mars tour to The House of Blues on Saturday night to a nearly sold-out crowd.  

 

The room was full of energy not only from Yungblud, as he bounded back and forth across the stage during each song, but also from the audience.  The mostly twenty-something crowd sang along with him at the top of their lungs.  They also jumped, danced and waved along with him as most of them needed to release a lot of pent up energy from not attending shows over the past two years.

 

Yungblud, dressed in tight black leather pants and a white mesh shirt, appeared on a sparsely filled stage that featured his drummer in the back corner, his guitarist and a projection screen that looked like a wall of Marshall amps.

 

Kicking off the show with “Strawberry Lipstick”  the young man from South Yorkshire, England was off and running.  After nearly every song, he would stop and pose for the crowd, soaking in their applause.  

 

A few times in the set, he would have the audience sing the first verse of a song and then he would come in with the rest of the band to finish it.  On the flip side, he had the audience sing the last part of the song and then said “let’s do it again” and they would sing the end chorus again.

 

Once or twice during a set is fine, but more than that is a bit overkill.

 

The young pop-punk artist is still trying to shock his audience.  During a song early in the set, he went over to his guitarist and gave him a long kiss on the mouth.  Of course, he had done this previously on the MTV Europe Awards show a few months before.

 

After “I Love You, Will You Marry Me” Youngblud changed into a short, black leather skirt and a black Cramps crop top with mesh sleeves and wore that for the rest of the show.

 

Proving that he isn’t just a singer, he also played guitar on a few tunes throughout the set.  And he even played the piano.

 

His latest single, “Fleabag” got perhaps the loudest response from the audience as the happily sang along to the entire song.  He noted that “Atlanta currently holds the record for the loudest crowd” and challenged the audience to beat them.

 

The Cleveland audience did not disappoint.

​

Toward the end of his set, Yungblud mentioned that the next song was helped out by a fellow Clevelander.  There was a buzz in the crowd thinking that Machine Gun Kelly might have made a surprise appearance.  It wasn't to be, but Yungblud still rocked out on their duet "I Think I'm Ok."

​

This high energy show came to a close with "Machine Gun( F the N.R.A.)."

​

The second band on the bill was Palaye Royale.  

​

This was one of the most energetic performances that I have seen from an opening band in quite some time.

​

The brothers Kropp, (Emmerson, Sebastian and Remington) along with guitarist Andrew Martin and new bassist Jennie Vie, were all over the stage for the entire show.

​

At one point, singer Remington Leith came out into the audience and started swinging from one of the tresses that was underneath part of the balcony.  

​

The crowd was really into the band as well.  Many of them sang along to every song.

​

Their forty minute set came to a close with "Mr. Doctor Man."

​

​

Newcomer, Charlotte Sands opened the show with some indie-pop tunes.  She sang to some backing tracks but she did have a drummer on stage to give her show more of a live feel.   Her set was fun and light, and she did a good job warming up the audience.

​

​

Review and photos by Greg Drugan

​

​

​