Aussie indie-rockers Gang of Youths announce Belfast show

Sydney rockers Gang of Youths have announced a show at Belfast venue Limelight on Tuesday, November 15th this year.

The band was formed in 2011 by Dave Le'aupepe, Max Dunn, Jung Kim, Donnie Borzestowski and Tom Hobden. Within months of their first gig, they’d started to attract a rabid fanbase enraptured by their expansive, widescreen take on indie-rock, the sort of music that manages to feel universal and personal at the same time.

They honed this sound over two records, on 2015’s The Positions and 2017’s Go Farther In Lightness, and won three of Australia’s prestigious ARIA Awards on the back of their platinum-selling second album. Word spread further afield, aided by an extensive support tour in the US and Europe supporting Mumford & Sons. They relocated to London towards the end of 2017, where they set up base together in a share-house in Angel, North London.

In Feb 2022 the band released their third studio album titled angel in realtime. Inspired by the loss of frontman Dave Le’aupepe’s father, it’s a record which channels its emotional intensity and existential questions into an exploratory sonic tapestry. The project touches upon everything from Britpop and post-punk to American minimalism and contemporary classical.

Self-produced and recorded in the bands own studio in Hackney, London, the record also pays tribute to Le’aupepe’s family heritage, with samples and original instrumentation from the Polynesian islands and the wider South Pacific. angel in realtime. debuted at No.1 on the Australian ARIA Charts, and No.10 on the UK Album Charts.

Gang of Youths recently electrified Dublin's Button Factory back in March, with support from 17-year-old Tom A. Smith.

"They set no rules and followed no guidelines. They did whatever the music told them do — whether is was reaching out to hold the hand of a fan, spraying water everywhere or grabbing each other's faces. It was chaos that only they could pull off," Hot Press' Lexi Anderson described.

"The defining moment of the show, their electric rendition of 'in the wake of your leave,' proved that this unconventional performance style worked. Layering gentle harmonies of the band's voices to build a crescendo of noise, the crowd kept singing long after Le'aupepe stopped. Here he stood, arms outstretched over an adoring sea of faces, soaking in the sound like sunlight."

Tickets on sale this Friday (July 22nd) at 9am from limelightbelfast.com and ticketmaster.ie.