It’s been amazing to watch the rise of Silver Lake, California band Local Natives throughout the year. It’s hard to remember a time where they were pitching songs themselves to blogs like this one right here, but that hard work has paid off, and their popularity has grown tenfold since the release of their debut album Gorilla Manor.
It’s been three years since we last heard from Local Natives with 2013’s Hummingbird, but they’ve thankfully returned to us in full force. They have been slowly sharing new songs from their new album Sunlit Youth (out on September 9 via Loma Vista Recordings), and playing last minute pop up shows in various cities, starting in Los Angeles, and spreading to the East Coast. It was New York’s turn on Wednesday, when the group returned to us for a very sold out intimate show at Rough Trade NYC in Brooklyn.
As the guys walked out to David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” the crowd erupted in cheer upon their arrival, a clear sign that the group had been missed by their passionate New York fans, which has always embraced them as if they were one of our own. They wasted no time ushering us into the new era of the band, opening with “Past Lives” the fantastic first single that they shared from Sunlit Youth. Lead singer Taylor Rice thanks us for coming on no notice as all, but it was clearly not a problem for anyone in the sold out crowd, which was as loud as I’ve heard the venue in quite some time, if not ever.
They worked in a fair share of new songs such as “Dark Days” (about the villainous, sensual, nighttime air), “Masters” (the last song they wrote for the album during a recording session in Nicaragua last year), and “Fountain Of Youth,” which they just released last week. Rice elaborated on the meaning of the later, tying in the songs meaning with all the tragic current events of the past couple of days, explaining that there’s “a lot of pessimism in the air in a lot of places, and it can be hard to know how to deal with that, but there is a lot of reason to be super hopeful and optimistic, and i hope we can feel that way right now.” As a whole, the new material felt like a natural progression and evolution for a band, who seem to be growing as a unit, but also a comfortable change, as there’s still that Local Natives sound that will be plenty welcoming to ears craving something familiar.
Even with all the new material laid out for us, there was still plenty of old favorites shared to the delight of everyone. Songs from their sophomore record Hummingbird sounded tighter and better than I remembered, and the stuff from their debut (“Wide Eyes,” “Who Knows, Who Cares” and “Airplanes”) got the rapturous reception that they deserve.
The duel percussion of drummer Matt Frazier and singer/guitarist/percussionist Kelcey Ayer add a never-ending rhythm that is complimented nicely by bassist Nik Ewing. The ability of Taylor Rice to lead such an energetic performance was seen during the always memorable encore performance of “Sun Hands,” which he sang while crowdsurfing on top of the crowd, before returning on stage to finish the epic jam with his bandmates.
Getting to see Local Natives rock out at Rough Trade NYC was easily a highlight of the summer so far for me, and one of the most memorable shows of 2016 as a whole. They’ll be back again in October for a pair of shows at the much larger Terminal 5, and it will be exciting to see what they can bring to those shows. If the crowd can replicate the same energy out of the band as they did the other night, it will be equally as memorable of a show.
Find the setlist posted below, along with a gallery of photos from their performance.
Local Natives Setlist:
1. Past Lives
2. Wide Eyes
3. Breakers
4. You & I
5. Mother Emanuel
6. Dark Days
7. Villainy
8. Ceilings
9. Heavy Feet
10. Coins
11. Airplanes
12. Masters
13. Fountain of Youth
14. Who Knows, Who Cares
Encore:
15. Sun Hands
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