Nilüfer Yanya Kicked Off Her North American Tour at The Broadberry in Richmond, VA
Carried out There September 7 with Help from Starcleaner Reunion; At present on Tour Opening for Alex G
Sep 17, 2025
Images by Wendy Lynch Redfern
It was all about that sax at Nilüfer Yanya’s latest present at The Broadberry in Richmond, VA. Effectively not all about it, actually Yanya’s skilled guitar enjoying and distinctive vocals took heart stage. However after watching her glorious set, one of many abiding ideas was that her studio recordings want extra saxophone. Particularly if her touring saxophonist/keyboardist Jazzi Bobbi is enjoying it.
The London-based Yanya kicked off her North American tour in Richmond (not together with a efficiency the night time earlier than on the Hopscotch Music Competition in Raleigh, NC). A lot of the dates see her opening for Alex G at a lot larger venues than The Broadberry, however the tour additionally encompasses a handful of her personal headlining dates. The night time earlier than we (being myself, my spouse Wendy, and our 12-year-old daughter Rose) have been at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. to see fellow Brits Pulp touring behind their first new album in 24 years. Yanya can be enjoying The Anthem, a 6,000 capability venue, subsequent month with Alex G. The Broadberry’s capability is just 350, so it was a way more intimate and chill event than Pulp.
We had by no means been to The Broadberry earlier than. If we lived in Richmond (which is 2 hours drive away from our home in central Virginia) I think about we’d’ve seen a present or two there earlier than. As you stroll in there’s a bar on the left and merch on the fitting, with the stage within the again. As we entered the opener, the unusually named, New Jersey-formed, NYC-based dream pop band Starcleaner Reunion have been enjoying. We didn’t know a lot about them, however had heard, and loved, their 2024 EP Cafe Life. The band, led by singer Jo Roman, had a pleasant vibe, like a extra chill Stereolab, and Roman had a likable stage presence. Their final track exploded with shoegazer dynamics, the lead guitar virtually being attacked. They’ve their sound labored out, however subsequent Starcleaner Reunion want to jot down a number of extra memorable or extra experimental songs, to face out a bit extra.
In distinction to Pulp the night time earlier than and all their stage crew and roadies, Yanya and her band arrange their devices themselves. Awkwardly, certainly one of Yanya’s songs performed over the PA as a part of the venue’s between bands combine whereas they have been establishing. They then left the stage for a couple of minutes earlier than returning for actual to carry out, pre-show ambient music enjoying within the background earlier than Yanya and band launched into “Methodology Actor,” the just about title monitor to her newest album, My Methodology Actor, which was #2 on our High 100 Albums of 2024 listing and landed Yanya on the duvet of Challenge 73.
Regardless of Below the Radar masking her for six years now, since her 2019 debut Miss Universe, this was my first time seeing Yanya and I wasn’t positive what to anticipate, however she actually didn’t disappoint. The aforementioned Jazzi Bobbi was actually a spotlight of her backing band, however the remainder of them sounded tight as effectively. That’s other than “Like I Say (I runaway),” the catchiest and most memorable monitor from My Methodology Actor, having a false begin. Wilma Archer, a solo artist in his personal proper and Yanya’s essential collaborator within the studio, was on guitar and a few songs have shoegaze textures to them firstly. For “Heavyweight Champion of the 12 months,” the band primarily sat down, with Yanya enjoying it solo on guitar, an actual showcase for the management she has over her Most worthy instrument—her unforgettable voice. There’s nobody else who seems like Yanya, a rarity as of late. Then the sax got here in on the finish of the track, making simply that extra particular. Her cowl of PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me,” a daily function of her set lists it appears and initially launched in 2022, was equally breathtaking. When David Lynch introduced again Twin Peaks in 2017 every episode featured a music efficiency on the Roadhouse bar from the likes of Sharon Van Etten, The Veils, and Chromatics and watching her Broadberry set it was straightforward to image Yanya becoming into that, if Lynch was nonetheless alive and doing extra Twin Peaks seasons.
There wasn’t a lot banter with the viewers, however the crowd was additionally surprisingly quiet and attentive (normally there are some annoying loud talkers about, however not tonight). “Stabilise,” from her 2022 sophomore album Painless, obtained one of the best viewers response of the night after which she ended the set with that album’s “midnight solar,” additionally a well-liked selection. Not so standard was her choice to do no encore. Maybe that’s as a result of the vast majority of the tour Yanya can be a gap act, who don’t do encores, and her set listing is designed for that. Maybe it was as a result of it was a smaller venue with not the hugest crowd. Perhaps she’s simply not all that into the performative nature of encores. Irrespective of, the set was good as was. And apart from, proper afterwards she got here out into the viewers to warmly greet followers and take images with them, finally transferring over to the merch desk to proceed to take action. We went to say hello to her because the publishers of Below the Radar (she has been on the duvet of our print journal twice now, together with one of many two group covers for the twentieth Anniversary Challenge) and she or he was very good and eagerly took a photograph with Rose. All of us agreed that we preferred Nilüfer Yanya even higher after seeing her reside.
It did shock me that with all of the essential acclaim and better of the 12 months placements her three albums have gotten (from not simply us, but additionally Pitchfork, Paste, NPR, Brooklyn Vegan, A/V Membership, Esquire, Uncut, and extra), in addition to journal covers, that Nilüfer Yanya wasn’t enjoying to a bigger viewers and an even bigger venue. Then once more, Richmond isn’t a significant market and hopefully the Alex G tour will win over much more U.S. followers. One takeaway is that she ought to contemplate releasing a reside album, maybe as a Report Retailer Day launch, to seize simply how good her and her band are sounding proper now, and I’ll say it once more, extra sax on her studio albums. She doesn’t must go full “Careless Whisper” ’80s cheese, however Jazzi Bobbi’s emotive enjoying positively contributed a brand new dynamic to Yanya’s already complicated compositions.
