Yonaka
Celebrating the release of your debut album with an explosive All Points East show is not something many bands can attest to doing. The chances of this grow even slimmer when the day you’re playing has been curated by one of Britain’s biggest rock bands.
Yonaka are THAT band, and deservedly so.
Four days later, the Brighton-based quartet are ready to have a ridiculously sweaty Norwich Arts Centre crowd by their throats. Prior to the release of Don’t Wait Til Tomorrow, the band have been one of a small pool responsible for reinvigorating British rock music over the past few years.
The evidence to demonstrate this is by no means limited. The strength of EP’s such as Creature and Teach Me To Fight have been enough to see them signed to Fueled By Ramen in the USA, the second band on the label’s roster to represent the UK other than grunge group Basement.
The bands they have brought along with them veer more into the experimental. Los Angeles based artist tiLLie and Glaswegian noise pop duo The Ninth Wave provide memorable, moody sets filled with bleached hair and makeup. It’s a compelling start to an evening that calls for celebration - the Arts Centre is Yonaka’s first sold out show of this tour.
From the beginning chants of album opener Bad Company it clear that the band are committed to leaving their mark on an eager audience. The rising heat of the packed out crowd means it isn’t long before half of the band are topless, adding to their punk-like aesthetics with undeniably good hooks.
Tonight Theresa Jarvis is a person of primary colours, her freshly dyed blue hair starkly contrasted with her red and yellow outfit that makes her look designed for a graphic novel. The band’s lead singer harnesses her energy in waves, carrying herself with power and control resonant of Karen O in the mid-2000’s that (literally) brings the crowd to their knees. Leaning in to the audience during album highlight Lose Our Heads, Jarvis sings into the faces of fans at the front, sincerely asking them to ‘break her heart in half’.
There is no point where the dynamism and chemistry of the band slips, be it fan favourite F.W.T.B. or newer cuts from the album that are not yet as familiar. Numerous moments throughout the show see each musician playing with such ferocity it looks as though they might explode. This culminates in closing number Fired Up, where guitarist George Edwards joins the pit to bring the show to a blistering finish.
Yonaka’s conclusion of this tour will be followed by promotional shows in both New York and Los Angeles and a series of European festival dates. It is clear this band are in the midst of a ‘moment’, their biggest so far but by no means the last, and seeing them at this time felt like something special.
