Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, songwriter Dylan Young’s solo project Way Dynamic has recently taken the indie scene by storm with its third and most recent album, ‘Massive Shoe’. His band also happens to be touring this year, one of their UK stops being Birkenhead’s Future Yard. I thought this a perfect opportunity to debut my visit to the venue and check out an intriguing artist who I’d only very recently discovered.
I arrived at Future Yard at 8pm, its unassuming surroundings juxtaposing with the boxy black and magenta exterior. Several people were already smoking outside, gathered in their own relaxed cliques. Indoors, a brightly coloured bar caught my attention, but I decided to skip straight ahead for the time being to see what the support act, ‘Snowy’, were all about.
Having not really looked into the support prior, I immediately did a double take; Young had already taken the stage as the support act’s drummer. Later, it was confirmed to me that the support consisted of Way Dynamic’s bassist and singer: “I hear he’s somewhere in the room”, Liam ‘Snowy’ Halliwell exclaimed, looking around unassuredly as if expecting him to jump out at any moment. Young smiled from behind the drumset.
The duo presented as a lo-fi indie rock dynamic, similar to the dolewave genre that emerged from Australian artists such as Twerp. Their sound was laid-back and optimistic, a sense of gentle repose emanating from Halliwell’s voice, which had an unmistakable Australian twang.
During the announcement of their last song, they invited the entire band on stage, who had been standing just feet away from me in the audience. What followed was the polar opposite of what I had expected, as Halliwell pulled out an A4 sheet of paper and began to read from it emotively while the band played a disjointed frenzy of sound. ‘Snowy’’s frontman had his hair covering his face, bent over and shaking his head in performative sorrow. It was certainly a contrast from the upright and prospective posture he had assumed prior.
The pre-set interlude was a mixed one. On the one hand, you had Momma’s ‘I Want You (Fever)’, and on the other, Chappell Roan’s ‘The Giver’. The crowd was receptive to the obtuse blend of genres. It was odd to see so many moustached men in their twenties sing along to the latter, but I’ll leave it at that.
Way Dynamic & Co took to the stage and an eruption of whoops and applause followed. By this point, you could tell that the show was sold out as the 600-capacity venue was packed. At that moment, I empathised with a tinned sardine.
The band commenced their set with ‘People Settle Down’, a perfect opener in my opinion. It’s a track bursting with clean-cut and simultaneously emphatic joy. The audience seemed to agree with me, chanting the end of each line. To my ears, at least, ‘People Settle Down’ has elements of Mac Demarco’s more jangly tunes, with the chorus and pre-chorus subtly mirroring the sound of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I was temporarily dazzled by some bright orange lighting which hit like a ray of sunshine; I wondered if they were trying to emulate an Australian summer to distract us from the dreary weather outside.
A couple more songs followed from ‘Massive Shoe’, such as the mellow baroque track ‘Mercy Town’. They also played their newest single, ‘Officially’, already one of my favourites. It’s a song which borrows the romantic yet frank lyricism of Nick Drake and combines it with clever use of instrumentals that really allow the track to open up, such as the same Harmonium that features on their popular single ‘Miffed It’. When the song came to a close, Young made sure to thank his fans, emphasising that he really admired Liverpool and its surroundings.
There is a reason ‘Miffed It’ is rapidly reaching a wider audience online; it’s one of the best written songs of the past few years, and its title features what Young himself has phrased as “not even really a word”. The Harmonium really shines on this record, especially when played live; it expands the heart of the song and creates little warm pockets of nostalgia and melancholy.
There was also an amusing gap in the set where the band members showed off some of their yo-yo tricks, to which the audience enthusiastically chanted “yo-yo!” I couldn’t even argue; they were pretty impressive.
While the setlist was mostly jam packed with their latest stuff, I enjoyed the inclusion of ‘Sports’ from their 2024 album ‘Ducks’. A high pitched noise filled the room as it came to a close, which I at first attributed to some mic feedback before realising it was in fact a recorder.
They ended their set as usual with ‘I was the dancer’, which features some more really charming guitar riffs and sentimental hooks. Its lyrics deal with the struggles of finding balance within a relationship: “Can we walk and talk as well? / settle scores in parallel”. It was a pleasant end to a short but sweet one-hour set.
While I needed to leave the venue almost as soon as the set had finished, several stayed behind to mingle over drinks at the bar. Future Yard seems to have created a hub of community for music lovers within Birkenhead that is fantastic to see, and I will hopefully be back soon.
Review by: Amelie Griffiths
