Yungblud Lights Up Austin, TX’s Moody Amphitheater with Leather, Swagger and Singalongs (SHOW REVIEW/PHOTOS)

On a hot Texas summer night at Austin’s Moody Amphitheater on Friday, May 29th, Yungblud proved that rock and roll stardom is not dead. It just looks a little different than it did forty years ago.

Dressed in leather pants despite the oppressive heat, Yungblud barely stopped moving from the opening notes of “Hello Heaven, Hello” through the closing encore of “Zombie.” Sprinting across the stage, directing crowd participation and constantly demanding more energy from the audience, he often appeared less like a performer and more like the instructor of a high intensity interval workout. The remarkable part was that, for every request he made, the audience happily obliged. Yungblud and the crowd became a single organism that fed off of each other’s energy the entire night.

His “larger than life” presence recalled legendary frontmen like Steven Tyler, Axl Rose, and Vince Neil. Yet Yungblud has managed to modernize that energy for the twenty-first century. During “Lowlife,” women all over the audience climbed onto shoulders to show off their outfits and sing along. It was a visual straight out of rock’s past, but without any of the excesses that often accompanied it. In fact, the only body part Yungblud asked the audience to show all night were their tongues. 

The setlist, which remains relatively consistent in each city, reinforced that Yungblud is focused on pushing forward rather than becoming a nostalgia act. Most of the songs came from his latest album, Idols, including “Hello Heaven, Hello,” “Idols, Pt. I,” “Lovesick Lullaby,” “Ghosts,” “Fire,” and “Zombie.” 

The standout moment of the night was a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” yet it was this exceptional performance that actually exposed one of the show’s few shortcomings. Across thirteen songs, the set lacked enough variation in dynamics and tempo to create a fully satisfying arc. Watching the band step off stage before the encore left the evening feeling rushed and premature. 

The other limitation was the imbalance of energy on stage. While Yungblud performed like a stadium headliner, the rest of the band rarely matched his intensity. Thinking of how Joe Perry complemented Steven Tyler, or how Slash elevated Axl Rose, one couldn’t help but wonder how much higher the show could climb if that chemistry extended across the stage.

Still, by the end of the show, the lasting impression was undeniable. Plenty of artists revive sounds from the past. Yungblud may be one of the first in years to, convincingly, revive the energy as well. 

All photos by John Croxton