Youth Lagoon Rebuild Their Musical Realm at The Aladdin Theater
Photo by Tyler T. Williams
April 3rd, 2025 - Portland, OR
Three stops into Youth Lagoon’s tour in support of their new album Rarely Do I Dream, Trevor Powers’ keyboard of fifteen years died in his hometown of Boise, Idaho. Per his own Instagram post, this keyboard was not only a sentimental loss, but a major musical setback: the model had been discontinued, leaving him with no way to transfer over a decade’s worth of presets to a new one. Between that incident at a festival the previous Saturday and Thursday’s show at the Aladdin Theater, Powers had to start from scratch with a new board. After relaying this story to the audience a few songs into the evening’s set, he gave himself a pat on the back, quipping, “I think I did a pretty damn good job!” I would agree, as would the rest of the transfixed crowd.
The Aladdin has quickly become one of my favorite venues since moving to Portland and this night precisely because of how easy it is to lose yourself in an artist’s music. The setting strikes a perfect balance of ornate and intimate, allowing performers to cast a spell over their listeners with relative ease. Fellow Idahoan Valley James set a wistful tone with her opening set; her voice gliding through timeless sounding country laments in a way that made me feel like I was an extra in one of many performances from David Lynch’s filmography. Her soulful alto and steadily plucked guitar strings were enough to keep any potential chatter to a minimum, at least from the standing room.
Although she cut a striking figure alone onstage in her elegant black dress and high heels, the red-haired crooner kept things light in between her tear-jerking ballads. “I did bring one happy [song] for you,” she beamed, before adding that the title is in fact “Kill for You.” In her defense, it was quite the passionate love song. James’ debut Star was released just a few weeks prior in March and it’s a must if you’ve a taste for the more morose strains of country that cropped up throughout the 60s and 70s in artists like the late great Townes Van Zandt, a connection made stronger by the singer’s stunning rendition of “Rex’s Blues” midway through her set.
If Valley James cast a spell over the crowd, then Youth Lagoon put an enchantment on the venue itself. The opening track of both the show and the new record, “Neighborhood Scene,” lulled the crowd in with twinkling keys and booming drums before catching fire with a bit of text-painting in the refrain of “light it up,” as driving bass and vivid lights joined the fray. The songs from the new record lent themselves nicely to more of a traditional “band” sound, with the trio trading key, drum, bass, and guitar responsibilities throughout the night. The more driving tracks like “Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)” translated even better onstage than on record, while reflective cuts like “Football” and “Seersucker” fit alongside my favorite songs from 2023’s undersung gem Heaven Is a Junkyard beautifully. My personal highlight came in the form of show-stopper “Mercury” off that record, whose massive hook somehow seemed small compared to the wall of noise attached to the end that caught me totally off guard given how familiar I am with the studio version.
Photo via Instagram
Of course, the songs that got the biggest rise out of the room were choice “hits” from before Powers’ temporary retirement of the Youth Lagoon moniker in the mid-2010s. “Dropla” was a powerful piece of psychedelia and bedroom pop staples “Cannons” and “17” triggered the only audible sing-alongs from the crowd. Nostalgia and childhood are some of the most consistent through lines in Powers’ oeuvre - this latest record and the performance are spliced with his own family home recordings for God’s sake - so there’s something poetic to him being at the point in his career where plenty of his material evokes these same reactions from an audience. It was a trip to see him, decked out in ripped clothes and piercings, with a shaved head marked with tattoos, singing these songs written by a wide-eyed, curly haired boy.
Stil, the most livewire energy was reserved for the tracks from the most recent records. “Idaho Alien” off Junkyard brought a chill to the room, while the most electric moments came when Powers ventured out from behind the piano to stand off against the people at the edge of the stage during “Perfect World” and main set closer “Speed Freak,” both from Rarely Do I Dream. The latter performance even saw the frontman brandishing a baseball bat in his tattooed arms, staring out into the middle distance while spinning tales of reckless action. Powers’ otherworldly, androgynous vocals took on a confidence that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years prior, bringing the magic of his own personal mythos to life a few short minutes at a time.
As the crowd filtered out of the theater after the encore, and some of those home recordings played on the loudspeaker, my mind drifted back to the broken keyboard. Namely, how I’d forgotten about it just one song after it had been brought up. The beauty of the Youth Lagoon’s music has always been their ability to construct worlds of sound both intricate and expansive and throughout the night, he and his band diligently brought these worlds to life with just three people, over and over. As an audience member it felt like watching these three musicians craft entire realms with just their instruments, and in Powers’ case he was rebuilding the sounds of his imagination about as literally as one could. The irony is that he did it so well that I could forget the magnitude of that accomplishment, but aren’t the most powerful magic tricks the ones you never even notice?
Rarely Do I Dream is out now via Fat Possum Records. You can catch Youth Lagoon at any of the remaining dates on their world tour listed on their artist page.
