Young the Giant closed their 2023 summer tour with a commanding performance as they lit up the night at the Cal Coast Union Amphitheater this past on Tuesday, Sept. 5. 

The show was originally set to be performed on Aug. 20, but due to weather conditions, the show was rescheduled. 

Fans of all ages filled the venue as they rushed to the merchandise booth to take posters, vinyl and t-shirts to purchase before the show began. 

Peach Tree Rascals — the last-minute opening act — took the stage amid concertgoers finding their seats and traversing the venue.

Peach Tree Rascals are a five-piece collective made up of Issac Pech, Tarrek Khali and Joseph Barros, who exchange singing and rapping duties, while Dominic “Dom” Pizano is producer-mixer and Jorge Olazaba is creative director.

Originating out of San Jose, Peach Tree Rascals mix hip-hop, funk and alternative jazz together to create a unique sound that has attracted over 2.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

The group had achieved success with their 2019 release “Mariposa,” and became viral on TikTok, peaking at number two on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Peach Tree Rascals kicked the night off with an exciting performance, prepping audience members for Young the Giant. 

“We’d like to thank Young the Giant for letting us play here tonight on short notice,” vocalist Issac Pech announced to the pumped-up crowd. 

The most exciting part of the group’s performance came during the song “LEAVE ME.” Before they performed the song, Pech and Barros instructed the crowd to join in on the “la-la-las” throughout the track. Then, they traded verses in a song that felt perfect for the summer season, including a fun beat and guitar plucking, along with laid-back vocals. 

As fans resettled in their seats for the next part of the concert, audio began to play on stage with a monologue that said, “The story started long before we were born, but we don’t even know the plot. All we have is a nameless feeling, a restlessness that passes down from one generation to the next, one that asks, ‘What does it all mean?’” Applause and cheers erupted from the crowd as Young the Giant, consisting of vocalist Sammer Gadhia, guitarist Jacob Tilley, bassist Payam Doostzadeh, guitarist Eric Cannata and drummer Francois Comtois walked onto the stage.

The band opened with the title track “American Bollywood,” followed by “Wake up,” a song based on the origins of Gadhia’s family. 

The stage was full of color, embodying the different album concepts Gadhia crafted. “Wake Up” featured shimmering blue stage lights, contrasted with orange shades and angelic vocals from Gadhia. 

Following these songs, they performed their most popular song, “Cough Syrup.” Gadhia didn’t even need to sing as many of the fans knew every word by heart. As the band played their song “Nothing’s Over” from their 2016 album, “Home of the Strange,” people got up from their seats and danced along to the synth-pop beat. Heavy electric guitars roared following the chorus as Gadhia sang, “God only knows what I would do to you.”

Pink lights emerged on stage, and cheers suddenly erupted from fans as the group played the well-known hit, “Mind over Matter.” Attendees were left in awe by the high-energy performance of the band. Couples held each other close, being moved by the emotionality of the song.

After the song, the group paused the show and took a moment to speak to the audience. 

 “This next song is for all of those wordless choruses, those wordless ideas and thoughts in our mind that drive us to do amazing and beautiful, terrible things,” Gadhia said. 

He asked the crowd to hold either their phones or lighters in the air, using them as a shining light to represent those wordless moments. 

“When the drums and the bass come in, I want you guys to put a light in the air,” Gadhia said. They began to play a more quiet and melancholic version of the song “Firelight” off their album Mind over Matter. Everyone quietly listened to Tilley’s guitar strumming against Gadhia’s immaculate vocals.

Young the Giant ended the show with a bang playing “My Body,” from their debut album in a burning eruption of sound and movement from Gadhia and the band. 

Fans jumped and stood watching the performance of the show’s last song with a feeling of recognition that the night’s show was coming to a close. The band — covered in sweat — thanked the audience and came together to take one final bow to close out the summer tour. 

Attendees left with a complete performance, highlighting the beautiful production and music by Young the Giant. Every song felt faithful to its album equivalent, if not better when performed live, with the occasional vocal inflections from Ghadia that added to the ambiance of the performance. 

The band came together in beautiful harmony and played their instruments to a precision that made the concert a flawless act of their recent album, “American Bollywood.”