Yungblud The World Tour made it’s stop in downtown Oklahoma City at The Criterion. This tour consists of Games We Play, The Regrettes, and of course Yungblud. Even on an extremely hot summer day, the fans showed up early. The line outside of the venue went almost two blocks down the street and consisted of fans young and old. I saw people in the crowd as young as around 3 years old, and if I had to estimate, some were in their 60’s.
Games We Play were first up, and damn…they did not hold back anything when they took that stage. This band won me over before their first song was even over. Not only is this trio extremely talented, but their energy level also took The Criterion by storm. Very rarely have I seen an opening band take the stage and get the crowds adrenaline level up as quickly as Games We Play did.
Did I mention how funny Games We Play vocalist, Emmyn Calleiro is as well? If the band wasn’t blowing me away with their performance, Emmyn had me laughing out loud with his humor. He brought his 19 year-old brother Ethan, who also sells their merch, on stage to show off some of their merch. He in turn let the crowd know that Ethan is very single and looking for a girlfriend or boyfriend. He was not only pimping out the merch, he was also pimping out his brother. Emmyn also told the crowd that he is Billie Eilish’s new boyfriend, even if she doesn’t know it yet. He would definitely keep her entertained, so come on Billie, give him a chance.
Next up was The Regrettes. While their energy level wasn’t quite that of Games We Play, I think the crowd needed a little bit of a breather before Yungblud. Trust me, I did not mean that this band was not great. This L.A. punk rock band formed in 2015, when vocalist, Lydia Night was only 15 years old. I read an article that noted some of the bands influences are a few bands from the 60’s and this was very evident with their stage presence and their musical styling. Lydia took the stage in her short, pleated skirt and her hair in braided pigtails. She is very playful on the stage, and the fans were loving every minute of the bands performance.
After a short break to get the stage set up switched over, it was finally time for Yungblud. The screen at the back of the stage was a silhouette of him with devil horns and angel wings. With the band members all in their places, Yungblud sprinted onto the stage and ran back and forth from one side to the other as he welcomed the screaming fans. I’m not sure that I have ever seen someone jumping and running around the stage as much as he was. He told the crowd “I am Yungblud…We are Yungblud”, and this had the fans going crazy.
Yungblud kept up the high-energy level throughout the entire performance. At one point he had the whole crowd put their pinky finger in the air and “pinky promise” that when he said JUMP, everyone was supposed to lose their mind and jump. When the time came, they kept their promises. That whole crowd was jumping, even the people upstairs in the balcony. Yungblud kept thanking everyone for joining him that evening, and he kept displaying his cheeky, playful grin right before he would run all over the stage again. He kept the fans fully engaged and made them all feel like a very important part of this show.
As I noted earlier, this was the first time for me to see any of these bands. But I assure you, it will not be my last. After this amazing evening of music, entertainment, comedy, and energy, I will be following all of these bands, and I will be seeing them when they come back to the area.
