JVB’s HYPERYOUTH is Yours – Joey Valence & Brae St. Petersburg Show Review + Gallery
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Words and photos by Joshua Reynes
When Joey Valence & Brae (more affectionately known as JVB) first stopped my scroll in 2022, I was, admittedly, in the throes of the nonchalance epidemic. I thought: cool bars, maybe a reinvention of the Beastie Boys, ‘nerdcore’, and ‘frat rap’ sounds I rinsed in years past, but not much beyond that. They came back to me in 2024, with a remix of “The Baddest” featuring 'hyperpop' oracle Ayesha Erotica stickered through my feed: “that’s even cooler, how did they get her?” That year, during a trip to our local haunt The Castle, resounding horns filled the lower level known to goers as ‘The Dungeon’: I got it then and I was airbound. Maybe it was the end of 'Brat Summer' or the celebration of our editor-in-chief Emma’s birthday, but my shock at hearing that song over a clipped sound system with life’s greatest friends was my biggest impression of the night. Sometimes hearing a song in the club can be prophetic. JVB’s friends-to-creative partners arc resonates with me, so much so that it is baked into the existence of Small Talks as a team and publication (love those guys). As I enriched myself with their catalog and online following, I kept telling myself that JVB might just be the messiahs of seemingly dormant sounds, then they came to my city, and found out they were much more.
HYPERYOUTH, JVB’s major label debut via RCA, fires on all cylinders. This time, TiaCorine, Rebecca Black, and JPEGMAFIA join the party. Penned by the group as a “club album”, HYPERYOUTH is both their most rambunctious and polished offering yet, grounded by a coming-of-age center. Over the course of three albums, the hip-hop duo evolved their bedroom-recorded, pop culture-inspired stylings and viral momentum — notoriously ephemeral – into something cogent, convivial, and, most importantly, really, really fun.
That fun is blown up to large format in their live show, exemplified by EWOOK, their DJ, who played a 20-minute prelude of recession pop staples and tracks that inspired the album. In a sea of “I don’t care, I love it”, I kept laughing because everyone was having such a good time and EWOOK’s presence was so funny and entertaining. I’ve been lucky enough to be commended with those words at the end of my own DJ sets, and I’m glad to see a similar ethos blown up on a stage like that of Jannus Live. There’s a time and place for everything, but there’s nothing dirty about showing your audience a good time.
A mirrorball-ified version of the JVB emblem illuminated the stage. There’s nothing quite like a walkout where the artist seemingly appears out of thin air, and the next thing you know, the entire crowd is brazenly screaming the lyrics. “Dance, bounce” is the mantra of the title track, greeting fans or ‘Hooligang’ with rattling breakbeats and a fusion of old and new school sounds; lyrically, it’s an ode to self-expression and living while you’re young. Spliced throughout “HYPERYOUTH” are samples of Skrillex’s seminal brostep opus “Bangarang”. In the climactic build-up where the usual drop follows, we were met with a moombahton-inspired bait and switch. Joey Valence handles the producing duties for this album and past releases – before forming the two-piece, his roots were in electronic music. It’s always interesting to see what sample clearances can do for artists when given more agency to utilize them. In this case, they injected new life into it, while also telling a generational story through its inclusion. I’ve seen clips online of JVB repurposing knock2’s “dashstar*” drop in a festival set. I’ll be upfront and say I don’t really go there, but I’m charmed nonetheless by how wraparound and authentic these interludes are in reference to their artistic approach. Also, tapping into the different eras of Skrillex is extremely based.
Joey Valence & Brae’s onstage energy is infectious: no matter where you are in the venue, their dynamic and banter shine through. Any break for crowd interaction was accented by EWOOK’s loaded soundboard. “Yippee”, Juicy J’s “Fahhhh”, and the scream from the top of Kendrick Lamar’s “u” are among some of the audios you may hear on the tour. Upon the spamming of the latter, JVB riffed, “I think Kendrick’s here.” Brae asked the captive audience where the nearest ice cream place was for after the show. In the crosstalk, Florida Hooligang put them on to the tried and true Twistee Treat while they presented their go-to back home in Pennsylvania: ice cream giant Cold Stone Creamery. We used to have one in the same plaza as the historic Sunken Gardens, but now the nearest one is in Pinellas Park. Didn’t matter, though. Very quickly, someone in the crowd retorted with a boo to Coldstone – much to the amusement of JVB, that they conducted a collective boo before kicking off the next song without skipping a beat.
The two did not let up, with a tight setlist packed with fan favorites and smashes from the new album. The crowd relished every second, opening the pit for the JPEGMAFIA collab “WASSUP”, a new take on the Playa Poncho classic. The back half of the night introduced slower cuts like “IS THIS LOVE”, a Miami bass-infused cut with a coyness I can only summarize thematically with a meek “hiii” – the version performed on tour features a Jersey club twist. It’s one of my favorite tracks from the pair to date: riddled with 7th chords and lush pads and Rhodes. It exposes a different side to their craft with more singsong vocals and R&B cadences, their signature humor and buddy rapport intact. If it’s one thing to take from my time with JVB, the element of surprise is king.
On Small Talks’ 2026 Ins and Outs, we claimed that ‘The Journey’ is in. It’s been nearly five years since JVB was “The White and Asian Kid [being] better than you expected” in Valence’s bedroom on our phones. ‘The Journey’ can be amorphous for anyone coming into their own, but one step is belief, another is still being there with the ones that you came with. Brae stated that they started creating in Joey’s mom’s house and still are. You don’t always have to go miles away to start, it can begin at home.
I’d be remiss to not mention Brae’s Filipino-American cultural heritage, a heritage that I share. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Filipino-Americans on a big stage—my first concert was the High School Musical tour with Vanessa Hudgens at 6 years old—and definitely not the last. After living through the 2010s, beaten over the head with the slogan to graphic tee pipeline, it’s still true: Representation Matters.
JVB played out Jannus Live with their ‘reward’ for the night with their first certified Gold record and what some might call their signature song, “PUNK TACTICS”. The reward was granted as a result of the crowd abiding by the tour rules posted on their socials. In short: express yourself, don’t be nonchalant, dance your heart out. These values align with the HYPERYOUTH mission and their artistry at large. Wise words coming from the digital spaces we grew up in, where nonchalance and terminal uniqueness can spread at expedited rates. The show was all ages, and that it was, I saw a dad leading his son towards the pit for the 1-2 punch of “THE BADDEST” and “DISCO TOMORROW”. If JVB makes their way to a city or festival near you, I implore you to experience it for yourself. A deluxe of HYPERYOUTH subtitled “(afterparty)” is due February 27th, and upon posting this, they’ve already begun performing their new tracks.
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