Yungblud, The Regrettes, Games We Play – Pier 17, NYC 7/14/23

I had the pleasure of meeting Yungblud the week of his 2018 debut album release – five years later, I had the opportunity to photograph his concert. 

Photos and Review by Emily McCormack

Yungblud’s album 21st Century Liability released just a week before Warped Tour made a stop in Holmdel, NJ in 2018. I knew the album decently well by then, and was so ecstatic to not only see him perform, but have the chance to meet him at his merch booth. I could tell very quickly that he is not only an incredibly talented and appreciative musician, he is, above all, a genuine human being.

Since then, I haven’t missed a local Yungblud show – I have followed him to a handful of New York City venues, which landed me at the Rooftop at Pier 17 for the second time this summer. 

Since I’ve been following him for so long, I knew it was safe to assume this show would be outstanding as always. I was particularly excited to hear songs he’s released since I last saw him pre-pandemic – including some tracks I love playing at WMSC, such as “The Funeral” and “Tissues.”

ook me by surprise was when he opened his show with the title track of his debut album. I followed the setlist of previous shows on this tour, and some weeks in he substituted “superdeadfriends” with “21st Century Liability” in honor of the five year anniversary of the project that jump started his music career. He has released so much music since 2018, which made this opener that much more special for the anniversary of my first Yungblud show!

Yungblud took part in what seems to be a setlist trend, which is performing a song that isn’t played every night, but rather a random one that is picked out the night of. What he has done this tour is have a fan join him on stage and pick a track from two options, but for this show he gave three! The song choices were “Doctor Doctor,” “Die For The Hype,” and “Medication,” all songs from the first album which this show was centered around. While my personal favorite option is “Doctor Doctor,” the fan chose “Medication,” which I think is ultimately the right choice if there could be one – this song has been an iconic part of his set for years, it was just meant to be that we would hear it on this night again!

His encore included his latest single “Lowlife,” featuring some pretty epic visuals displaying lyrics on the lights/screen behind him, alongside graphics from the official lyric video. The closing song was “Loner,” which took me a bit by surprise – this song isn’t on any of his official albums, but was the first single post-21st Century Liability in 2019, thus making it his first song release taking in the new wave of fans.

Another cool thing about Yungblud is that he has never picked a bad opener – I have seen fantastic bands such as MISSIO, Palaye Royale and Saint Phnx open, and both Games We Play and The Regrettes lived up to this standard.

Games We Play has a fantastic energy about them that made me feel like I wasn’t just watching a band do their thing, they truly appreciated the shared space between the stage and the audience. It felt like we were all just human beings existing in the moment, the only difference was some people actually knew how to play instruments… One standout song that I would recommend is “Get A Job,” as I found myself humming it the following day. Games We Play would actually leave the Yungblud tour shortly after this show, and join select dates of the Fall Out Boy tour that I attended! It was great to catch their set a second time. 

The Regrettes are absolutely adorable. I hope they aren’t offended when I say they are truly the cutest band- but this doesn’t mean I would mess with them. I would like to give them a respectful hug for their fantastic performance. I was particularly excited to hear their song “Monday” live, as their lyric “An existential crisis and it’s only a Monday” is a common household quote (even if it is, in fact, not a Monday). Their vibe made me smile, and I would certainly love to catch their set again someday soon!

It was such a pleasure having the opportunity to cover this show on behalf of 90.3 WMSC-FM. I am incredibly grateful for the chance to photograph one of my favorite artists, and create such a cool, personal Yungblud day – Who knows, maybe something even more epic will happen in five years from now!

See below for more photos from the night!