Review: YONAKA at Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

I have said it once and I will say it again, YONAKA are a band to look out for. After their stellar performance at Wedgewood Rooms I would be shocked to see them play a small venue again. Opening the night with ‘Punchbag’ seemed the perfect fit for a wild night full of great music and of course, mosh pits. In a recent interview with YONAKA they revealed their favourite song to perform live was ‘Punchbag’ and it makes sense why, as it made a rather dead crowd and get up dancing. There was a variety of ages at this show proving YONAKA are a band for everyone, and this could be further proved as front woman Theresa Jarvis worked the stage and made sure everyone felt involved (even those at the back), creating a close and intimate feel.

One of the best songs of the night had to be the performance of ‘Awake’ which showed guitarist George Edwards rock the house down with his amazing musicality and energy. Throughout the whole set Edwards was performing and showing just how amazing YONAKA are. ‘Awake’ also featured Jarvis’ broad vocal range which is far more impressive in person than on record, even though no one thought that could be possible. While they had many upbeat and mosh worthy hits one of the key moments of the night had to be during the acoustic set of ‘Guilty (For Your Love)’ which yet again showed Jarvis’s vocals but featured a hilarious moment between fans and the band as fans decided to go low on the floor and mosh and go crazy during the ACOUSTIC (emphasis on acoustic) chorus to ‘Guilty’. Only one critique of the show is they didn’t perform their old classics like ‘Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya’ and ‘Bubblegum’, however though they were missed it was still an amazing set full of tracks from their latest album Don’t Wait Til’ Tomorrow.

Closing the night on ‘F.W.T.B’ made for the perfect evening for live music as Edwards dived into the crowd and played guitar at the same time while moshing with all of us, this was extremely impressive and made the night even better. ‘F.W.T.B’ is the song that gave them further recognition and is a song that holds a special place in the heart of all YONAKA fans. This was truthfully one of the best YONAKA concerts I have ever been to and I am sure many of the fans could say the same.

You can buy tickets for the remainder of YONAKA’s tour here.