YARD ACT BRINGS THEIR ENGLISH CHARM TO THE REGENT THEATER IN LOS ANGELES
Touring in support of their second album, ‘Where's My Utopia,’ released this March, West Yorkshire's Yard Act brought their post-punk meets cerebral disco sound to the Regent Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday night. Opening their set with "An Illusion" from their new record, singer James Smith started an energetic evening of repeated one-liner mic drops.
The crowd was immediately taken by the newfound electronic groove that has permeated Yard Act's original sound. The audience was a mix of older, sharp-dressed patrons and those who came to thrash around up front while Smith paced, looking wide-eyed through his fogged-up Cocker-esque frames. Along with traveling backing singers Lauren Fitzpatrick and Daisy Smith, Yard Act turned their signature spoken word inner monologue into a dance party. Although the vocals were a little too quiet in the mix to hear the nuances of Smith's hyper-verbal conversation, the droll sarcasm was felt in our bones.
What Smith's voice lacks in melody, it makes up for in slam poet cynicism, dissecting everyday life, chewing up capitalism, and spitting it back out in a way you could sway to. With co-founder Ryan Needham on bass, Sam Shipstone on guitar, and Jay Russell on drums, Yard Act proved their post-punk palette has broadened into something you could mosh to. And many did.
With only two records released, Yard Act's set was a back-and-forth mix of the two as Smith bounced around the stage, standing on monitors and even laying on his back with his legs in the air. The mood was light, but the message was always an analysis of existence from great emotion to small grievances in songs like "Pour Another" and "Dark Days," lyrically nodding to Ian Dury and Pulp, with a sound that was nodding to LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture. Smith sang, "I'm not lazy; ambition is just something I have no interest in. At least when I meet my maker, I'll embrace all my mistakes."
Proud of their hometown of Leeds, Yard Act introduced the ominous foot-stomper 'Vineyard For the North". Energy in the room was very high but was still brought up a couple of notches when they performed the fast-paced "We Make Hits" as Smith rapped the absurdities of the creative process and the sacrifices made to write something as catchy as this track. They closed their set with "Payday" and "The Overload" and returned after a brief encore. Smith remarked on starting this band with Needham 5 years ago and how he couldn't believe they were playing The Regent Theatre in LA "to an 80 percent capacity... look how far we've come!" They did an encore of disco-samplers "100% Endurance" and "The Trenchcoat Museum" after making sure to remind us that very few of us will know what it means to be truly free, so we should keep in mind those in Sudan, Ukraine, and Palestine.
Yard Act was supported by Ausin's quintet FONT, whose experimental post-punk meets cow-bell-heavy new wave was the perfect spark for the evening.
