Youth Lagoon entranced recordBar crowd with prophetic wisdom, characters who came to life on a wave of melodic synth layers
Photo by Brynn Winkler
An intimate crowd filled recordBar Tuesday night for a genre-bending synth set from artist Youth Lagoon in Trevor Powers’ first performance back in Kansas City since reclaiming his moniker.
The audience was enthralled by Youth Lagoon‘s idiosyncratic sound, which has been described as everything from neo-psychedelia to dreamy lo-fi-synth pop, including elements of Americana, electronic, and experimental music.
The Idaho-based artist was accompanied by two band members on the drums, bass, and guitar for a 13-song set. The trio started with a string of songs from Youth Lagoon’s latest release Heaven is a Junkyard (2023).
His haunting vocals coupled with mellow beats and melodies created a hypnotic energy that kept attendees’ eyes on the colorfully lit stage, swaying and nodding along.
Youth Lagoon, too, was consumed by his music as he sang about characters in his life, the human experience, and interwoven extraterrestrial themes—his hushed ghostly voice at times juxtaposed his urgent revelations.
In “Trapeze Artist” and “Idaho Alien,” it feels as though Powers entrusts audiences with a contemplative secret as he whispers about the experience of existing in his body when a reaction to an over-the-counter medication caused him to lose his voice for months.
Though breaks and crowd engagement between songs were minimal, Powers gave a brief intro to “Trapeze Artist” and expressed the vitality of the song in solidifying the heartbeat of the rest of the newest album.
Photo by Brynn Winkler
Along with songs from Heaven is a Junkyard, Youth Lagoon performed a small selection of tunes from The Year of Hibernation (2011) and Wondrous Bughouse (2013).
His most popular song from the former album, “17,” had a small handful of attendees singing along. Otherwise, the crowd’s volume remained very low so as to hear the heartfelt mutterings of Youth Lagoon—that is, aside from one couple experimenting with a new recreational drug that night.
Evidently displeased by the energy of the crowd, the rowdy concertgoers snarked that the lame audience had “just come from church” before dipping out.
For the entire crowd that stayed behind, Powers took us to church with his mastery on the keyboard and the emittance of peace that he’s reached in reconceptualizing his identity.
Setlist
- Rabbit
- Prizefighter
- Cannons
- Deep Red Sea
- The Sling
- Afternoon
- Trapeze Artist
- Mute
- Little Devil from the Country
- Montana
- Idaho Alien
- 17
- Mercury
Encore
- Poster
- Dropla
Keep up with Youth Lagoon on Instagram and click here for tour dates to catch them in concert.
