Sold-out show at the Bataclan for Joey Valence & Brae, whose music thrives on contradiction. Their songs fuse massive pop hooks, rave-ready beats, old-school hip-hop swagger and enough grit to keep things from becoming too polished. On paper, it sounds ungainly but in practice, it works remarkably well.
The Bataclan spends most of the night in complete chaos, people dancing, jumping, screaming and crowd-surfing almost from the first song onward. The crowd sings tracks from the new album HYPERYOUTH just as loudly as older favorites like “Gumdrops” or “Hooligang,” which says a great deal about how quickly the new material has connected.
Both MCs seem genuinely thrilled to be there, and equally grateful that enough people turned up to sell out a room of this size. That enthusiasm feeds directly into the performance and comes right back from the audience. By the end of the night, the Bataclan looked thoroughly exhausted and very satisfied.
