Chasing the Magical YNICORNS

I've decided to follow these guys wherever they go. If they're playing anywhere in town, there are two reasons I'll be there. Reason one is pretty simple. I LOVE their music! Reason two is about connections. I love the people and bands they surround themselves with. If I go to a YNICORNS show, it's almost guaranteed I'm going to love the other bands on the lineup.

At the last show, because I was chasing YNICORNS, I discovered Urban Heat and I now have a new favorite synth-pop, darkwave band. (Much more about Urban Heat in a future post.)

I would attempt to describe the YNICORNS sound but Scene Pensacola’s Moth Edge did an outstanding job when they released their album Break Break Break in 2023 so you can start here for some background. YNICORNS New Album BREAK BREAK BREAK

This piece is more just photos and me rambling about my love of this band. I will lift this quote from YNICORNS mastermind Doug Stanford though.

What is Post-Rock? "Post-Rock is an opportunity to take all of these different elements of these different genres I like and combine them together into something that has the energy and spirit of rock music without any of the need for the convention of rock music so much? It gives a freedom to explore compositional ideas and textural ideas all under one unifying thing which is the collage of inspiration. A lot like the visual art I enjoy, it leaves a lot of room for interpretation for the audience to sort of imprint their own experience and ideas into this sandbox you build sonically. So I like that. I like open ended things, stuff that allows the listener to be interactive with the medium and art." - Doug Stanford

As much as I love the music, the live performances are what really hooked me. There are things some more experimental bands like this do in the studio that are nearly impossible to pull off live. But with YNICORNS, the sounds these guys make on stage right in front of the crowd blows me away!

And there’s an energy in their performance that, for me at least, was unexpected but it's an absolute blast to photograph.

The shots above are from the Handlebar show opening for Urban Heat.

I also caught YNICORNS at headlining at Betty's on Belmont back in January and took a few photos of that show too. Loved the atmosphere at Betty's and can't wait to get back there!

Bottom line is, I love this band and you should love them too! Several dates are coming up so check the Scene Pensacola show calendar to find out where and when.

YNICORNS are:
Doug Stanford - Guitar
Destyn Patera - Guitar
Sean Peterson - Bass
Alex Gibson - Drums