YungBlud breaks barriers with his show being a concept of a mental patient escaping a hospital.
Yungblud
Yungblud and Missio’s style of music and performance complemented each other perfectly for the Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club Tour. Missio headlined their own tour and made a stop in San Diego back in April. Pairing with YungBlud is fitting because both artists put an energetic spin to their music which tends to have dark themes. Missio played songs off their latest album The Darker The Weather // The Better The Man such as “Rad Druz,” “Dizzy,” “Misfit Lunatic,”and fan favorite “I See You.” Matthew Brue, a true showman, constantly jumped around the stage, managed to keep the crowd fully engaged at all times, and asked them to throw their middle fingers in the air for “Middle Fingers.” Missio originally stared at a studio project in 2014 with the intent of writing songs for films. Since then, they have skyrocketed and headlined a tour, performed at festivals, and paired up with YungBlud.
The show opened with 15 minutes of police scanners with dispatch informing everyone that YungBlud has escaped the mental institution and is on the loose. He then ran out on stage with a huge red flag. YungBlud’s performance style is a chaotic burst of energy. He constantly sprinted across the stage with his tongue out, jumping around, and interacting with his Black Hearts Club. During the encore, he came out into the crowd for a song.
The most surprising aspect of the night was the vast variety of fans he has. There were so many little kids at the show singing along to his somewhat dark lyrics. His fans are so passionate about him and that definitely showed when they sang “Die For The Hype” acapella. The entire show was a concept of someone that’s unstable being loose in our society. Not every artist creates a story with their performance, but this show made sure everything tied together.
YungBlud has been one of the biggest up-and-coming artists in the last year. He has collaborated with big artists such as Halsey (11 Minutes), Machine Gun Kelly (I Think I’m Okay), Travis Barker, and been featured on popular soundtracks such as 13 Reasons Why and Hobbs and Shaw. He isn’t afraid to bends gender rules by wearing nail polish, makeup, and even returning back on stage wearing a skirt. His music is blunt and talks heavily about political issues such as gun control (“Machine Gun (F*** The NRA)”), medication, anxiety, as well as other dark themes. In an interview with Rock Sound, he said his biggest influences are rock and hip hop because there’s a “lack of fear to be yourself and say what you think. It’s kind of like freedom”.
In a day and age where people are becoming less afraid and more open about their opinions and beliefs, musicians don’t tend to write about that. Instead, music gravitates towards relationships and personal struggles. YungBlud takes his platform as a musician to talk about real issues in society in a way that makes it easy to sing along.