Yours Truly, Banks Arcade, Yen Strange, Hubris @ Jive, Adelaide 10/12/2022
Yours Truly are completing an remarkable year. An explosive and vulnerable EP Is This What I Look Like? dropped, continual touring across Europe and the US and the day after dropping a Lo-Fi chilled version of their last EP, a sold out show in Adelaide as part of their tour.
The show is a celebration of everything that makes Yours Truly a unique and special band in Australian musical circles. It’s fun, it’s emotional, it’s raw, it’s tackles social issues head on and everyone is welcomed with open arms.
Opening proceedings are Hubris, who amalgamate jazz croon with post punk angst directed at society. The final track showing depth as deep as the ocean as guitarist Jamie explains her own story as a transgender woman with soaring melodic epic guitar harmonies.
Continuing the all inclusivity of a Yours Truly show we then have Yen Strange, a solo performer who speaks to the young audience through her lyrics with her ability to build rapport from the stage. She is one of them and vice versa. This is intimate and relatable and Yen Strange uniqueness in a guitar based line up works to her advantage with the Adelaide crowd.
New Zealand’s Banks Arcade are back for another trip to Adelaide after recent sojourns with Thornhill and In Hearts Wake.
A band which has the delicately balanced skill of introspective lyrics with music to dance to. Drown, Be Someone and the epic Wine have the crowd eating out the bands hands and when Used, with that great beat, starts the floor becomes a whirl of bouncing fans and bassist Harlen included.
Yours Truly vocalist Mikaila Delgado walks through the crowd moments before taking the stage, like a champion boxer going into the ring, and minutes later the a nuclear sonic blast of effervescence hits.
Delgado sways, shakes and high kicks her way across the stage as the band drop Careless Kind with the crowd jumping, clapping and singing every word back.
Composure is a explosive blast of a bombtrack as Delgado gets down eye to eye level with the crowd however it’s not all fast adrenaline fuel pop punk. The band slow it down for an stripped down part of the set that displays Delgado’s vocal range before erupting into Afterglow.
I Can’t Feel, Circles and Lights On are bombastic and glorious. People sitting on shoulders, hands in the air and a wonderful feeling of everyone living in the moment.
High Hopes gets a huge cheer and even louder audience participation during the chorus before Banks Arcade’s Josh joins for a energised version of Hallucinate – complete with carrying guitarist Teddie Winder-Haron – before the band finish with Walk Over My Grave.
A Yours Truly show is like being invited to your younger cousins party where everyone from all walks of life is included. So leave your ego at the door and submerse yourself in the music, you won’t regret it .
Live Review By Iain McCallum