Maturity might not have been on display on Jenny Owen Youngs’ Spring Break Forever Tour, which stopped in Allston at the Great Scott last Wednesday, but for the 28-year-old singer/songwriter who has progressed from covering pop songs to recording her second full-length album, maturity is embodied in her composure, her skillfully crafted songs, and her years of experience on the road.
“I’ve been doing a lot of designated driving on this tour,” Youngs said about the Spring Break Forever Tour before jumping on stage last Wednesday. Sharing the stage and time in the car were close friends Allison Weiss and Bess Rogers, who each played their own sets and then joined Youngs at the end of her headlining performance. With the three girls cracking jokes about body shots, hook-ups, and ideas for tattoos influenced by excessive alcohol, it was clear that they were “totally having a blast,” as Youngs said.
While the mood was light and the jokes were fresh, Youngs and her friends and bandmates took the opportunity to demonstrate their careful songwriting and experienced performing, featuring songs from her most recent full-length, Transmitter Failure. “It’s all about how the ‘I’ of the song interacts, communicates, and relates with another party,” Youngs said about her sophomore album. “I feel like as I mature my relationships become something I approach more and more from trying to understand everyone’s perspective and not just mine. It’s part of growing up,” she said.
Youngs has mastered the ability to account for the other person and it shows in the way she connected with the audience at the Great Scott.
“I strive to make songs that can mean something to me but can also mean something to other people,” she said.
She allowed herself to be accessible to the crowd by telling personal vignettes and letting everyone laugh along while Weiss and Rogers came on-stage to finish up the show with the catchy and hilarious theme song for the Spring Break Forever Tour.
Youngs has played the Boston area at least a dozen times and has toured the Northeast with Regina Spektor who she met at SUNY Purchase while getting her degree in Music Composition. Her music has been featured on Showtimes’ Weeds, Perezhilton.com and Daytrotter.com, among many other places. She will play at Austin, Texas’ South By Southwest music festival this week.
Her full interview will air on the Fleshy Fresh on Thursday, April 1 at 6 p.m. EST on www.wtburadio.org.
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March 4, 2013
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