The music of Dylan Young, who performs under the moniker Way Dynamic, had only really passed me by prior to this show. To my shame, I didn’t think to check out his latest record, last year’s ‘Massive Shoe,’ which having listened to since (before the show, obviously) and heard live points towards a promising career for this singer/songwriter. In truth, I was more familiar with the work of two members of his band, Liam Parsons and Stefan Blair, whose material as Good Morning I’ve enjoyed for close to eight years. It took the former posting about this tour with Young on Instagram, and how he was performing in some of the support slots, for me to jump at the opportunity to review it. I am very glad that I did.
It wasn’t Parsons who was supporting tonight’s show, however – I actually thought he wouldn’t be there, so was suitably taken aback when he came out with Blair and Young. Snowy, too (or ‘Snowy Band’ if you want to find his material online), who while playing bass as part of the Way Dynamic entourage, took to the stage with just a sampler and a mic as the show’s opening act.
Not going to dwell on this, because it’s not about the artist themselves, but before Snowy’s set, everyone (including myself and friends) was stood a few paces away from the stage. When it started, obviously, we moved forward – just us, though. Everyone else remained where they were, leaving this painfully awkward gap between the stage and the crowd behind us. To make matters worse, the moment Snowy’s set ended, and he was still on stage at this point, everyone moved forward. Pretty wack if you ask me, though I will say I’ve never seen that happen at a gig before.
Back to the music, I found Liam ‘Snowy’ Halliwell’s set enjoyable, with some tracks doing it for me and others not so much, but all were a pleasant listen and well-sung. The material he played us was comparable to that of Chanel Beads, where lyrics are half-sung, half-spoken, over an array of instrumentals blending acoustic and synthesised sounds. Were he performing with his ‘Band,’ of which Young is actually a part, I probably wouldn’t make the same comparison, but with just himself and a sampler, the songs which sound more low-key and folky in their recorded forms had more of an electronic edge to them.
For instance, ‘Relative Hum,’ an acoustic track (bar the distortion-heavy electric guitar that come in at the end), felt powered by what sounded to me like a drum machine beat. The same goes for ‘God Texted Back,’ a song whose lyrical content I found a bit on-the-nose – be it about the deity or someone they’re comparing to him, I don’t think the line ‘God, hit me back please’ is ever not sounding corny – but which I really liked compositionally. In particular, the repeated refrain of ‘is that all you can say/no way,’ the female harmony of which Halliwell played through the sampler, was really effective; especially when it continued while he delivered the final verse.
Like ‘Relative Hum,’ ‘Exactly Where To Find You’ is another song Snowy played from his 2025 record ‘The Apartment,’ and truthfully I wasn’t particularly moved by it live, though I think I prefer it in its recorded form – again, the drum beat dominated, while on the track the downbeat electric guitar melody takes precedence. That said, the ending, in which the drums go from plodding to crashing, was powerful in person. Snowy also performed a new track, ‘The Forest,’ released under his real name earlier this month, which had an equally exhilarating outro of loud, blown-out electric guitar.
Snowy himself was an energetic performer, striding around the stage as he sang and nodding his head as he manipulated his instrumentals via his sampler. He also bantered with the crowd a bit, calling for everyone to ‘boycott American music’ after bigging up local acts; in reference to Manchester, shouting out the band Wyatt, who he (and I imagine the rest of the Way Dynamic band) recently saw live in London.
After his set, it wasn’t long before we saw Snowy return to the stage, this time to play bass. Alongside him were Dylan Young (guitars), the face of Way Dynamic, the Good Morning duo of Liam Parsons (keyboard, melodica, tambourine and recorder) and Stefan Blair (drums), and the Yo-yo-ing lead guitarist whose name I frustratingly can’t remember (think it was Jack, but I can’t find any leads…). It was a sold-out show, and with the stage-shy people having moved forward (side-eye), you could really tell upon looking back. From the first song they performed, I knew it was going to be great one, too.
‘People Settle Down’ was a fitting choice to begin the set with, given it’s also the opener of ‘Massive Shoe’. A delightful song that sounds like it could be a folk-pop classic from the 70s – and which you’d think was already a classic from how many people were singing along – it was performed almost flawlessly by Young and the band. I say ‘almost’ as, right at the end, Blair had a little blip on the kit, prompting his peers, all at different points, to meet his eye and reflect his smile; encapsulating the laid-back, happy atmosphere that Way Dynamic created, both through the music they played and their light-hearted, friendly interactions.
While I loved ‘People Settle Down,’ with its whimsical keyboard chords and ice-cream-on-a-summer’s-day tone, I found what followed just as endearing. ‘Ibiza’ is defined primarily by an infectiously groovy bass line which, paired with plodding percussion provided by Blair on the drums and the lead guitarist on cowbell, is impossible not to, at the very least, sway along with. Quite the contrast, stylistically, from what preceded it, but the sound that both tracks share – Young’s butter-smooth voice – means you don’t think twice about the switch-up. It’s a Way Dynamic show, meaning that you can always look forward to hearing something unique with each song.
For some performances, this ‘unique’ something came in the form of a new instrument in the mix. ‘They Said,’ another dreamy ‘Massive Shoe’ cut, saw the lead guitarist wielding a flexatone, a percussion instrument that produces a sound in between that of a triangle and a musical saw and which features on the original recording. It was also during this performance that the same guy, in the gaps between him hitting the flexatone, did some quick Yo-yo tricks – Young talked about how he had been practising it as they toured – to rapturous applause from the crowd. Parsons played the melodica on some songs, namely the raw, relationship-mourning ‘Miffed it,’ which I have to assume is Young’s most popular song as practically everyone was singing it back to him, and it brought even more of the whimsicality and warmth that is so characteristic of Way Dynamic material to the set.
In terms of other songs, the ‘unique’ something you can expect can be, quite simply, an exquisitely crafted composition. Take ‘In Review,’ with its jazzy chord progressions and main electric riff reminiscent of the slacker vibe of earlier Good Morning material. ‘Evening Star,’ as well, has a lovely stop-starting, bossa nova-adjacent rhythm and some dead nice canon backing vocals from Snowy and Parsons in the ‘be yourself’ part. Again, both were performed immaculately; this was one tight band, even more of an achievement when you take into account the amount of other instruments they brought in.
We were treated to three new tracks. One of them, ‘Officially,’ was released this month, and Young did well hitting the higher notes in the romantic chorus (‘officially addicted in an ocean of defeat/officially afflicted by the way you look at me/how could I be discreet?’). The other two, ‘Eat the cat’ and ‘Bird on your head,’ remain unreleased, but they’re ones to keep your eye out for. In spite of my poor memory, what I can say for certain is that both of them were electric guitar driven, and both rocked. Additionally, the song ‘Not a Fan’ from Young’s debut, ‘So Familiar,’ made the set, and it sounded just as it does on record, cute keyboard trills and ‘Footsteps In The Dark’ drum beat and all.
Young rounded the night off with another slacker rocker, ‘I Was The Dancer,’ giving us a last, satisfying earful of his voice – I’m tempted to call him Aussie Nick Drake, but I’ll bet I’m not the first – and inspired melodies. I think it’s a forgone conclusion that you’ll be hearing more about Way Dynamic in the latter half of this decade, and it won’t be long until he says the words “it’s good to be back in Manchester” once again. If you can catch him, if not with this fantastic melange of Melbourne musicians next time around, be sure to; with Young, a good time is guaranteed.
The Way Dynamic show was promoted by Now Wave. See the full list of their forthcoming shows at Now Wave – Home
