Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: The Captain of the Castro: Why Sam Smith’s Residency Is San Francisco’s New Sanctuary
Words by Starr Lee
SAN FRANCISCO- After an intimate residency in Brooklyn earlier this year, Sam Smith has brought the concept west, settling into San Francisco’s newly reopened Castro Theatre for a five-week run that feels deliberate and personal.
The neon marquee glows against the fog like it has something to say. Inside the 1,400-capacity movie palace, restored after a $41 million renovation, the main level fills quickly. No floor seating. Just a standing crowd packed beneath the balcony, bodies shoulder to shoulder, faces tilted toward the stage. Above them, fans lean over the railing, drinks in hand, waiting.
Smith walks out without fanfare.
They open with “Lay Me Down,” nearly motionless beneath a single spotlight. Dressed in a structured captain’s hat and a sweeping lace coat fastened with an oversized flower pendant, they look like a romantic voyager arriving somewhere that already feels familiar. The first note is soft, almost cautious. Then it opens.
In a room this size, nothing escapes. The Castros’ acoustics catch the grain in Smith’s tenor, the slight ache at the edge of sustained notes, the inhale before a chorus swells. The crowd is silent, standing still, listening.
When “I’m Not the Only One” begins, the temperature shifts. Smith lowers their voice for the first verse, almost speaking the lines before lifting into the chorus. On “You and me, we made a vow,” their voice tightens just slightly, intentional and controlled. By the second refrain, the crowd is singing quietly along. Not screaming. Not overpowering. Just enough to be felt. Smith steps back from the mic for a beat and lets the lyric hover before reclaiming it with a steady rise. The moment feels shared rather than performed.
After the second song, Smith looks out across the standing crowd below the balcony.
“This city means a lot to me,” they say. “My first show here, I was 20 years old.”
They tell a story about being left alone in San Francisco while a partner explored the city without them. About wandering through neighbourhoods by themselves. About unexpectedly falling in love with the place. “It feels very full circle to be here for five weeks,” they admit, scanning the room.
Then they squint toward the front.
“Wait. Were you here last night?”
A fan screams.
“Oh my God. You’re doing the residency properly. I love that.”
Laughter spreads across the floor and up to the balcony. That’s the difference when an artist stays in one place. The room starts to recognise itself.
Midway through the set, the lace coat slips away, revealing a custom Vivienne Westwood look: a black poet’s shirt with dramatic sleeves, tailored cheeky shorts, towering heeled boots striking sharply against the stage. The shift feels freeing. Smith moves differently now. Looser. More playful.
They introduce a new track, “My Guy,” sharing that for the first time in their career, they are writing from a place where the love is reciprocated. Followed by a cover of Erasure’s “A Little Respect”, “It’s a Wednesday,” they laugh, “but I need you to shake your titties.”
The balcony answers first.
A sleek blend of “Ain’t Nobody” and “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” turns the theatre intoa late-night dance floor. But soon they bring the energy back down to another cover
Later, bathed in deep blue light, Smith steps toward the piano for “Angel From Montgomery.”
“It took me eight years to finally listen to Elton and sing this,” they admit.
The arrangement is stripped back to piano and voice. No embellishment. The lower register carries weight. The higher notes remain clear and measured. When the final line fades, the room holds still for a second longer than expected before applause breaks through.
Sam Smith’s residency at the Castro Theatre runs through Feb.10th-March 14th, 2026. Tickets are available via the theatre’s official website. With just 1,400 standing spots per night and word spreading quickly, availability is limited.
Five weeks in one theatre does something rare. It turns a concert into a chapter. And this one is still being written.
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Young the Giant Finds New Life in Old Songs on the Victory Garden Tour
On July 24, Young the Giant brought the Victory Garden Tour to Vancouver’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, with Beach Weather and Cold War Kids opening the night. The show had the familiar shape of a summer tour stop, but Young the Giant made a convincing argument for why a band with six albums behind it can still make a new chapter feel worth hearing.
Beach Weather opened the night with a short, easygoing set that got the crowd moving without trying too hard to steal the show. The band joined the tour as a late addition after KennyHoopla was forced to drop off the run, and they made the most of the opportunity. Their set was loose, melodic and built for a summer crowd.
Cold War Kids were a different proposition. They have been around long enough now that calling them an indie rock band feels almost too broad. Their music has lived through several different eras of alternative radio, and their live show carries that history without becoming a museum piece.
Nathan Willett remains an excellent singer, with a voice that sounds remarkably close to the records live. He was joined by a band that looked completely comfortable onstage, particularly bassist Matt Maust, who has a wonderfully loose way of moving around with his instrument, and drummer Joe Plummer, who supplied much of the night’s physical momentum.
The set included staples such as “Hang Me Up to Dry” and “First,” along with newer material and songs that reached further back into the band’s catalogue.
Cold War Kids sounded good. More than that, they looked like a band that knows exactly what it is doing. Their performance had the kind of relaxed confidence that only comes from years of playing together. They were a strong fit for the bill, and the crowd that stayed for them was rewarded.
There is still something slightly strange about watching Young the Giant occupy the role of veteran alternative rock band. The members are not old, neither are the songs. And yet the people who grew up with “Cough Syrup” and “My Body” are now standing in a venue wondering where the hell the time went.
The band opened with “Evergreen,” the first track from Victory Garden, and it immediately established the show’s visual language. Five large, flower-like fixtures surrounded the stage, shifting through different colours as the set progressed. It was an obvious extension of the album’s artwork and title, but it never felt like an overproduced gimmick. The flowers gave the stage a distinct identity and helped the new material feel like part of a larger story.
Sameer Gadhia remains the band’s biggest weapon. His voice is every bit as impressive live as it is on record, but his presence is what separates him from a lot of other alternative rock frontmen. He does not simply stand at the microphone and sing. He moves, dances, gestures and works the room without making any of it feel calculated. He has the rare ability to make a large venue feel personal without pretending it is a small club.
The setlist leaned heavily into Victory Garden as nine of the 22 songs came from the new record, giving the album enough space to exist on its own rather than functioning as filler between older hits. That choice will inevitably frustrate some fans who came for the greatest hits, but I would rather see a band commit to its current record than spend two hours recreating the past.
The new material held up. “Already There,” “Bitter Fruit,” “Mona Lisa,” “God as Witness,” “Ships Passing” and “Different Kind of Love” all found their place in the set. “Ships Passing” was particularly strong, with the band folding a brief passage from “Titus Was Born” into the song before letting it build. “Different Kind of Love,” meanwhile, carried the confidence of a band that has found a fresh creative spark. The song became Young the Giant‘s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart,.
The older songs, naturally, still were the most popular. “Apartment” remains one of the band’s best songs, and hearing the opening guitar fill the venue was one of the night’s early highlights. “Garands” was a welcome deep cut, followed by “I Got” and the Home of the Strange pairing of “Repeat” and “Mr. Know-It-All.” This year marks a decade since Home of the Strange, and the set gave the album enough attention to acknowledge that milestone without turning the show into an anniversary tour.
“My Body” has been played to death over the years, but it remains impossible to resist live. The opening brought an immediate reaction from the crowd, and by the chorus, the entire venue was moving. “Cough Syrup” had a similar effect. The opening guitar was enough to trigger a roar, followed by thousands of phones appearing in the air. The song has become the band’s calling card for a reason. It still works.
The band eventually closed with “Mind Over Matter,” one of its biggest songs and a fitting end to a set that spent the night balancing the past with the present. There was no drawn-out encore routine. No disappearing backstage only to return minutes later because everyone knows the script. Young the Giant played the songs they wanted to play, gave the new album room to breathe, and left.
The Victory Garden Tour is built around the idea of reconnecting with joy and approaching life with a little more curiosity and empathy. Those ideas can sound overly earnest in the wrong hands. Young the Giant mostly avoids that trap by putting the message where it belongs: inside the songs.
Six albums into a career that began when the band members were barely out of their teens, Young the Giant no longer needs to prove that it belongs here. The more interesting question is what it wants to do next. In Vancouver, the answer seemed clear: keep the old songs alive, give the new ones a fair shot, and keep moving. For a band that has spent more than 15 years growing up in public, that is a pretty good victory.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
YOUNG THE GIANT
COLD WAR KIDS
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Jimmy Eat World Brings Bleed American Back to Life in Vancouver
There are some concerts you go to with no idea what you’re going to get. A 25th anniversary tour built around one of the best albums out there is not one of them. You know the songs, the order, exactly when the big moments are coming ; the only real question is whether the band can make those songs feel as alive as they did the first time you heard them. Jimmy Eat World had no trouble answering that question.
On July 19, the Arizona rock band finally returned to the Vancouver area for the first time since 2017, bringing the Bleed American 25th Anniversary Tour to the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. It had been a long wait, and the packed room made it clear that fans had not forgotten what they had been waiting for.
Motion City Soundtrack opened the night, giving the crowd a strong dose of early-2000s nostalgia before Jimmy Eat World took the stage. It was a fitting pairing. Both bands came of age during a period when alternative rock, pop-punk and emo could still find a home on mainstream radio, and both have built careers that outlasted the era that first made them famous.
For me, though, the night carried a more personal weight for a different reason: this was my first time seeing Jimmy Eat World live. After more than three decades as a band, and nearly a decade since their last Vancouver appearance, the fact that it took until 2026 for me to finally see them live made the wait feel even more significant.
Jimmy Eat World began the evening with songs from Clarity, their 1999 breakthrough album, including “Clarity,” “Your New Aesthetic,” “Blister,” and “Lucky Denver Mint.” It was a smart choice. The band could have gone straight into Bleed American and given everyone exactly what they came for, but those opening songs made a point: Jimmy Eat World did not suddenly become a great band in 2001. They had already been doing this for years.
Then they switched to “Bleed American,” and the stage itself transformed. A large wall that had kept the full production hidden from view moved aside, revealing the expanded Bleed American stage setup behind it. The lighting rig opened up across the width of the stage, giving the band a much bigger canvas for the album that had changed their career. It was a smart bit of theatre without feeling overproduced.
The album was performed from beginning to end, and hearing it in sequence made one thing very clear: Bleed American is an unusually complete record. The obvious hits are there, but so are the songs that tend to get pushed aside when a band is working with a limited setlist.
“A Praise Chorus” remains an absolute rush. “The Middle,” one of JEW‘s biggest and most recognizable hits, turned the venue into a massive singalong. “Sweetness” took that energy even further, with thousands of people shouting every “whoa-oh” back at the stage. “Get It Faster” brought the aggression. “Your House” offered one of the night’s more affecting moments. And “Hear You Me” remains one of those songs that can stop you in your tracks, even after you’ve heard it hundreds of times.
The beauty of hearing Bleed American played from start to finish is getting the full picture. The album has explosive highs, quieter emotional moments and everything in between. Songs that don’t always get the spotlight in a regular setlist suddenly have room to breathe.
Jim Adkins remains a compelling frontman, delivering these songs with the same sincerity that made them work in the first place. Tom Linton’s guitar playing was sharp and energetic, while Rick Burch and Zach Lind continued to provide the steady foundation that has held this band together for more than three decades.
There was no sense that the band was simply going through the motions of an anniversary tour. They looked like they were having fun and so did the fans.
That crowd was one of the best parts of the night. Fans who discovered Bleed American when it was released stood beside younger listeners who weren’t even alive when the album came out. Everybody seemed to know the words.
The main set ended with “My Sundown,” bringing the album to its quiet conclusion before the band briefly left the stage.
Jimmy Eat World returned for a five-song encore that moved beyond Bleed American, opening with “Disintegration” and continuing through “Pain,” “For Me This Is Heaven” and “(Splash) Turn Twist” before closing with “23.” It was a fitting reminder that Bleed American may have been the record that changed the band’s career, but it is only one piece of a catalog that has kept giving fans reasons to stick around.
Twenty-five years after Bleed American changed everything for the band, these songs haven’t become museum pieces. They’re very much still capable of making a room full of people lose their voices.
And after waiting nine years to see Jimmy Eat World back in Vancouver, I can say this with complete confidence: it was worth the wait.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming Tour Dates:
July 22 –– Sandy, UT –– Sandy Amphitheater
July 24 –– Concord, CA –– Toyota Pavilion at Concord
July 25-26 –– Long Beach, CA –– Vans Warped Tour
August 14 –– Halifax, UK –– The Piece Hall
August 15 –– Cardiff, UK –– Cardiff Castle
August 16 –– London, UK –– Gunnersbury Park
August 22 –– Montreal, QC –– Vans Warped Tour
August 23 –– Toronto, ON –– RBC Amphitheatre
September 6 –– Phoenix, AZ –– Chase Field, supporting My Chemical Romance
September 9 –– Austin, TX –– Moody Amphitheater
September 10 –– Dallas, TX –– The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
September 12-13 –– Mexico City, MX –– Vans Warped Tour
November 12 –– Nashville, TN –– TBA
November 14 –– Tampa, FL –– MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
November 14-15 –– Orlando, FL –– Vans Warped Tour
More information here.
JIMMY EAT WORLD
MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer