Concert review: Young the Giant w/ Cold War Kids & Little Image | 08.08.26, Saint Louis Music Park (with photo gallery)

Photo of Sameer Gadhia (front) and Payam Doostzadeh of Young the Giant by Laura Jerele

Young the Giant’s show at St. Louis Music Park came with its own built-in Midwest special effect: brutal, muggy summer heat. So yeah, that had the massive crowd sweating it out right along with the bands. It was icky, but humidity aside, it was a stacked bill that delivered. 

I’d been looking forward to catching Little Image live. They’re still young in their career, but a couple of their catchy singles have already found their way onto my favorite satellite radio stations, so I was looking forward to seeing what they got! The oppressive St. Louis heat probably kept their energy a notch below what it could have been under better conditions, but they still brought plenty of fun to the stage. Refusing to be just another forgettable opening act, they worked the crowd well enough that people were shouting their name back at them multiple times throughout the set, albeit coaxed!

Cold War Kids ran through a set built to celebrate more than twenty years as a band, along with the anniversary of their debut release. This was a killer setlist clearly designed to send longtime fans home happy. I know I was! As always, they sounded bright and heavy, because Cold War Kids simply know how to do this right. There’s nothing contrived about this band. No theatrics, no gimmicks, just guys playing rock ‘n’ roll, and doing it as well as they ever have. Frontman Nathan Willett’s voice remains rich, powerful, and never short on emotion. Their set clocked in right around an hour, wrapping up just as the sun finally, mercifully disappeared (did I mention it was hot?). Closing with “First” felt like exactly the right way to end it.

It was also bassist Matt Maust’s birthday, and the band was not about to let it pass quietly. Tiny party hats and wine glasses made their way onstage for a proper round of birthday shenanigans. As soon as their set wrapped, both Little Image and Young the Giant met Matt at the side of the stage to help him celebrate. It’s cool to see little moments like that because it’s a grind being on the road, so it’s nice to see some silliness happening!

Young the Giant closed out the night with a stage setup that was visually stunning, bright, vibrant, and simple all at once. My only regret is that we were stuck shooting from the soundboard; those visuals would have been magical up close. True to form, the band sounded phenomenal, their sound as culturally rich and genre-blending as ever, drawing from a mix of influences that makes them genuinely unique. They never let down, and in all the times I’ve seen them (including super early on) they’ve always sounded bang on. 

Frontman Sameer Gadhia spoke about the band’s history with St. Louis, name-checking their time spent on the Delmar Loop and at The Pageant. With this stop being the second-to-last show of the tour, they clearly pulled out all the stops on the setlist. There was even a good laugh at their drum tech’s expense: apparently he usually “plays air drums,” but tonight Jesse was actually behind the kit for last-minute and unknown reasons, and he sounded great.

They tore through a stacked catalog with zero letdowns:

Evergreen
Superposition
Bitter Fruit
Apartment
Mr. Know-It-All
Silvertongue
Something to Believe In
Already There
Mona Lisa
I Got
Anagram
Dollar $tore
Firelight
Ships Passing
Different Kind of Love
My Body
Cough Syrup
The Walk Home
Mind Over Matter

Heat and humidity be damned, this was a lineup and a setlist worth sweating through. | Laura Jerele