Show Review: The Figgs, The Young Fresh Fellows At Brooklyn Electric.
June 27th, 2024.
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“Somehow we forgot to come to New York for 22 years” -The Young Fresh Fellows
June 28th, 2024
Last night we crawled down to Bowery Electric for the first time hoping to get shocked or zapped by The Figgs and The Young Fresh Fellows. We’ve been waiting in anticipation for this show for months, it was the first time The Young Fresh Fellows, a Seattle historical landmark, were playing in NYC in over two decades. This was a packed sold out show and the evening did not disappoint, below is our account of it.
We walked into The Figgs playing a cover of That’s Entertainment by The Jam. Nearly everyone was singing along. We were late because we got the door time wrong and the only place to stand in the full room was in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. They bantered with the crowd, cool and casual, for them to pick the second to last song. They settled on a number called Victoria. It seemed like everyone but us knew the words. Their frontman raised a glass and let the crowd sing the last chorus. The setup was simple, a slightly overdriven guitar and a snare and cymbal with a pair of brushes. And a voice as smooth as bourbon.
The excitement in the air was palpable as members of The Young Fresh Fellows assembled on stage. The Bowery Electric is a deeply personal designed space, the band and the crowd were as close as can be. “Alright... I feel like tonight there’s going to be a jailbreak” were the frontman’s first words. They opened with 10 Dollar Pitchfork. They played what they play best, straightforward drum-roll pop rock with slick harmonies in all the right places. Sometime later they played Searching USA. And a song from their 2020 album Toxic Youth. They covered ground from their entire 40 year career, and it was go go go. They never even stopped to tune up, just an occasional pause to reminisce on a moment or smile with the crowd.
The Young Fresh Fellows began in Seattle in the early 80’s and in many ways helped to lay the foundation that ushered in the Grunge era of the 90’s. Their blend of garage rock and more classic pop combined with playful and sometimes silly storytelling set them apart from the moment their debut album The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest was released. It clearly established them as a band that wasn’t interested in chasing a trend or fitting to a genre, they just liked to make music that was fun to them. This ethos of playing the music you want to play because you like it would carry through the region, giving rise to Nirvana, Pear Jam, Alice In Chains, L7, Bikini Kill, The Gits, Soundgarden, and countless other groups.
We crawled out of the venue at the end of the evening satisfied, feeling like we had witnessed a small piece of history. Which we did, every show is a little piece of history. And we’ll keep documenting what we can. Connect with The Figgs and The Young Fresh Fellows on social media below if you want to follow them along!
