Behemoth is a great word. I don’t think people use it enough. Remember a few years back when everyone and their mother used “epic” in every single sentence? Let’s make not do that with behemoth but let’s use it more often. I’ll start. Young The Giant are in the midst of a behemoth tour with Cage The Elephant, Bakar, and Willow Avalon for the Neon Pill Tour. After check it out at the Hartford Healthcare Amplitheater in Bridgeport earlier this week, one thing was perfectly clear: Hartford is not in Bridgeport. Kidding. Getting serious, the abundantly clear thing about the night was just how lucky the audience was to see four spectacular acts on one bill and at such an intimate, outdoor venue. I’d like to focus on Young The Giant though — if I may. Often times, when bands are so reliably good, I feel, we take them a bit for granted. YTG played an abbreviated set (11 songs) and I marveled at A) how good they sounded live and B) how many friggin’ modern rock classics they have. They’ve had so many hits since their debut “My Body” that I actually forgot they released “My Body” until they played “My Body.” You know what happened when they closed with “My Body?” My body danced to “My Body!” Performance-wise, the Irvine natives couldn’t have sounded better or seemed more gracious. Frontman Sameer Gadhia menitoned the tenth anniversary of their hit album Mind Over Matter and how it didn’t resonate at first, and ended up becoming, well, a behemoth of a record. (OK, I’m done with that word.)
As a matter of fact, the band just celebrated that anniversary with a deluxe edition with a clear smoke vinyl, 12-page booklet, poster and slip cover. It also includes three never-released demos and a new song “Metropolis.” Back to Mind, the title track recently went Platinum and was a standout in Bridgeport. Other standouts were the mega-fantastic, mega-hit “Cough Syrup” which each and everyone was singing along with, “The Walk Home,” and my personal favorite, “Waves.” Early next month, the tour will roll into Madison Square Garden. This band, so reliable for so long, deserves to play the grandest stage of them all.
