It’s not often at The Joker, or any other venue of that capacity for that matter, when leaving it can be likened to the atmosphere of a football match. This is what George van den Broek, aka Yellow Days, managed to create in an impressive, surprisingly long set that left the soldout crowd buzzing for a long while after, on the finale of his debut headline tour no less. There’s been murmurings for a few months now and, with a swift hour, Yellow Days confirmed he’s the real deal.
Support for the tour was South London MC, Benny Mails, who suffered from supporting an indie artist in Yellow Days rather than a rap artist. Playing to a very, very small portion of the crowd, he was actually quite impressive. Along with mates DaeStreet and Cesta Matiq, Benny Mails is clearly influenced by the likes of Wiley and 90s American hip-hop. He wears his influences on his sleeve, quite literally, as he has a Nas tattoo on his right forearm. By the end of the set, Mails and co. were playing to a substantially bigger crowd and rightfully so, because songs such as new single ‘Senses’ are fun, dancey and bouncy slices of UK rap.
Yellow Days, on the other hand, had no such crowd problem. By the time he was ready to make his way to the stage, The Joker was as busy as I’ve seen it in years. Opening with new song, ‘So Terrified of Your Own Mind’, it was clear just how important he is to a lot of teenagers. He’s clearly got the indie kids on side already, which is remarkable, and incredibly important for his growth as an artist. It appears he’s already got a core audience that will stick by him. Not many artists have the confidence to open with a new song on your debut headline tour, but at 18 years old, it’s quite thrilling to see someone perform with such confidence without displaying arrogance. ‘So Terrified of Your Own Mind’ is a fantastic slice of dazed, slacker indie-pop for that matter, too.
What followed was a set infused with originality, yet weaved with George’s clear influences. Another new song, ‘Little Palace’ has definitely come from Pink Floyd’s brand of psychedelia, or at the very least David Gilmour’s outrageously talented guitar solos. Yellow Days’ manage to implant their sample-heavy sound into a live output purely because of George’s tremendous talent on the guitar. He’s quite something to watch.
Following the new songs with three of his biggest songs, ‘A Little While’, ‘Gap in the Clouds’ and ‘Your Hand Holding Mine’ boasted Yellow Days’ ability to create a sing-along. Every chorus from these songs was sung back to him and, considering it’s his debut headline tour, they don’t even look surprised. Which is probably because they know just how good the new stuff is. New EP songs ‘Hurt in Love’, ‘That Easy’ and ‘I Believe in Love’ show that George has no signs of letting up on the passionate, emotion-filled ballads that made his debut EP Harmless Melodies so successful. His vocal range is reminiscent of Paolo Nutini’s newer stuff, it’s incredible to see such a young man with such a grasp on his vocal output.
Ending on arguably his best song and definitely the best example of his adroit songwriting, ‘People’ and the most Mac DeMarco influenced song of the set, ‘Outro (Slowly Baked in the Sunshine)’, it’s pretty obvious that George could keep going for hours. He and his band are loving it and he’s got the back catalogue to do so. Coming back out for a very deserved encore, he ended on another new song ‘Holding On’ which went down a treat with the audience.
In many ways, this was a professional, mature and skilful set that you don’t often see in the smaller venues, but ostensibly Yellow Days is the full package. He released his first single on Soundcloud just over a year ago. With that sort of momentum they should be in arenas by next winter. On this showing, Yellow Days has shown that he’s got what it takes to take on the role as ‘the next Mac DeMarco’ and, with the indie kids on side, the world is his.
Liam McMillen
Website: yellowdayss.com
Facebook: facebook.com/Yellow-Days-1666370363673925
Twitter: twitter.com/george_vdb