After whipping up a storm on social media – through the viral spread of his trademark one-take live performance videos – Dario Darnell, aka Youngr, has been making some serious waves in the music industry.
Following the success of the aforementioned videos of his wild bootleg sets, Youngr last year released his debut original composition, Out Of My System, to widespread acclaim.
Since then, Young has embarked on a 2017 tour that will take the multi-instrumented loop party from all over Europe to an extensive road trip across the USA. After bringing his unique show to Cologne, Berlin, Paris, and Amsterdam, Youngr arrived at Glasgow’s O2 ABC – and we were lucky enough to pop along!
Opening his birthday gig with Daydreamer and Disappear, Youngr let the crowd know of a supernatural occurrence with regards to his earpiece feed – “there’s some crazy shit going on in my ears, sounds like aliens are trying to contact me – if they are that’s sweet!”. Making light of what could be a pretty big inconvenience for some, it was clear from the off that Youngr was as chilled out as they come.
After beginning his set with ease and making the stage and the crowd his own, Lost in Translation was aptly followed by a sound technician trying to rectify the extraterrestrial communications, with Youngr politely refusing before laughing – “Fuck wires, I’d rather have aliens!”. ’93 and Fuck it! came next, with the latter’s line “let’s drink until we’re dumb” prompting a fan to reach for a toast of cheers – to which Youngr duly obliged.
Youngr then had a request for his chums from outer space – “aliens, if you’re listening, please can I have some red wine?” – before charming the Glaswegian crowd into further adoration for his talents, by proclaiming “I love this city!”. After this, his trademark bootleg rendition of Sweet Disposition was, as expected, an absolute sight and sound to behold.
Too Keen, Monsters, Hawaii, and Out Of My System followed, with the latter closing with an epic drum-off between Youngr – on his awesome force-field of instruments – and the hugely talented backing drummer, who was grinning from ear to ear all night.
September Sun was the “last song” before Youngr excitedly bounced back onto stage and orchestrated a rendition of “happy birthday to me”. The encore of Give it Up and Fill Me In was received with as much energy and enthusiasm as how the night began – with Youngr’s charming stage presence and crowd interaction putting a smile on the faces of all as they filtered out into the Glasgow night.
Words by Jonno Mack
