never young beach
Turning stressful environments into feel-good times
It’s a testament to never young beach’s general chillness that they brought a positive vibe to the Red Marquee Saturday afternoon. They started while a big rainstorm fell outside of the spacious tent, forcing hundreds upon hundreds of punters within, creating one of the most cramped crowd situations of the weekend thanks to a mix of folks wanting to see this buzzed-about young rock outfit and people just looking to stay dry (which, aside, what is wrong with the folks just sitting down the whole time. Stand up for the band, at least, pretend you want to be there!). Whatever tension cropped up before the show dissipated once the five-piece took the stage, though, and ripped into their most well-known song, the shambling “Akarui Mirai,” translated as “A Bright Future.”
That should have been expected, seeing as never young beach have become one of the hottest young bands in Japan thanks to a cheery outlook and beach-rock-inspired music that blesses all of their creations with a fun-in-the-sun feel. The songs they rolled out Saturday celebrated the small joys of being young and alive, ranging from riding one’s bicycle around (“Jitensyani Notte”) to basking in the summer (“Natsunodokidoki”). Seemingly every song was built from speedy, surf-rock-derived guitar riffs and beats, to the point where this is the rare band that needs to take a break between songs, as otherwise everything starts to blend together. But hey, that’s just a critic talking — everything from the half-time strut of “Sunday’s Best” to the driving “Surely” had punters throwing their hands up in the air and bouncing around, despite the tight quarters.
