Home of the Strange Tour: The Beginning

The image above depicts the band members of Grouplove, Young the Giant, Cage the Elephant, and Sleeper Agent at the UTC June of 2012. One of the members of Young the Giant took photo.

The image above depicts the band members of Grouplove, Young the Giant, Cage the Elephant, and Sleeper Agent at the UTC June of 2012. One of the members of Young the Giant took photo.

Lany Campbell, Staff Writer

In the Spring of 2017, Grouplove will be opening for Young the Giant on the release of their new album Home of the Strange, but first, here is a little background on them.

Young the Giant was previously known as The Jakes and formed officially in 209. The band consists of Sameer Gadhia on vocals, Jacob Tilley as the lead guitarist, Eric Cannata on guitar, Payam Doostzadeh on bass, and Fançois Comtois on the drums. All of the band members met in high school in Irvine, CA, and ditched their other bands to pursue a career together. The style of music is based on European and Middle Eastern roots and forms an eclectic, indie rock sound that is unique and specialized.

After several months of juggling school and making music, they all made the collective decision to ditch college and pursue their musical career as a band; which turned out to be a very successful decision as they were the opening performance for Kings of Leon and playing at South by Southwest, they were later signed to Roadrunner Records.

In January of 2010, the band chose to change their name from The Jakes to Young the Giant and they began working with producer Joe Chiccarelli on their self-titled album. The album was later released and available to purchase digitally.

Now, in 2016, Young the Giant is touring with their new album, Home of the Strange, and will also be performing their single “Amerika” with the band Grouplove.

Grouplove formed around the late 2000’s with Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd, Ryan Rabin, and Andrew Wessen. Hooper and Rabin are from New York and formed a friendship with the others through an art residency off the island of Crete in Greece. The last album the group sold was titled Spreading Rumors before Gadd left the band. He was later replaced by Dan Gleason. This year signifies the release of their third album, Big Mess, featuring the song Welcome to Your Life.

Young the Giant and Grouplove met two to three years ago at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, CA. During the time frame they were there, Grouplove opened for them, and not many people showed up to the event causing them to cancel. After the event was cancelled, they all decided to exchange numbers, and, one year later, Young the Giant returned the favor by opening for them in Australia, now, it’s Grouplove’s turn to open for them.

All in all, both of the bands have had their highs and lows when it comes to performing and are prepared to present a concert filled with loud music and a wonderful atmosphere.