This show took place on November 4th 2025 at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. New dates have just been announced for 2026, see the full listing at the end of this review.
Joey Valance & Brae are the Philadelphia-via-State College hip-hop duo (collectively known as JVB) that launched from Pennsylvania dorm rooms in 2021 and are now riding the global wave of their third studio album HYPERYOUTH.
Signed to RCA, they’ve become the unlikely flag-bearers of a “nerd-rap” revival: a movement that reclaims old-school hip-hop swagger through the lens of internet humour, gamer culture, and TikTok-era speed.
At the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on a mild Autumn night, they proved that nostalgia and novelty can dance on the same sweaty stage on what is their largest headline show to date.
As the duo’s DJ Ewook warms the crowd up jumping on his deck table in front of a punk glitter ball customised around HYPERYOUTH’s bedevilled album icon, we’re a long way from the Camden Underworld where Brae recalled they played their first UK show and thought they’d reached their peak. The crowd roared at the memory, a multigenerational mix of students, middle-aged Beastie Boys disciples, and Gen Z meme kids dressed like avatars of musical history. The recipe for the evening was simple – dancing, sweating and making friends.
Next to me, an aerospace engineering student from Southampton university said he’d missed seven hours of lectures to make the trip. He wore sunglasses throughout, looking euphoric and faintly invincible – let this nerd inherit the earth. Nearby, a girl in an I Love Rebecca Black T-shirt shouted every lyric beside fans in Slipknot and Turnstile tees, a snapshot of how JVB straddle genres and generations.
That inclusivity is baked into their sound: punk riffs, hyperactive raps, rave drops, and the humour of two friends who still can’t believe this is their job. “Like a Punk” tore the room open into a circle pit; someone tried a backflip and was promptly absorbed by the crowd. “The Baddest” turned the venue into a TikTok in motion, someone even filmed it on a Nintendo 3DS. “Punk Tactics,” arguably their biggest anthem, directly channels the energy and structure of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” and “So Watcha Want.” In the absence of those elder statesmen still being around to entertain us (RIP MCA), it’s a joy to see a new generation pic up the baton.
They may be big, dumb, colourful and loud, but what JVB channel isn’t irony… it’s release. Between the mosh-pit carnage and boy-band dance breaks, there’s a deep joy in how unserious it all feels. HYPERYOUTH isn’t chasing cool, it’s chasing freedom. And in an era when everyone seems exhausted by trying, that might be the most radical sound of all.|
Catch Joey Valance & Brae when they return to Europe and the UK on the following dates in 2026:
May
6 Belfast, Ireland– The Limelight 1
7 Dublin, Ireland – 3Olympia
9 Liverpool, UK – O2 Academy
10 Glasgow, UK – Barrowlands
12 London, UK – Roundhouse
13 Paris, France – Bataclan
15 Antwerp, Belgium – Trix
17 Cologne, Germany – Live Music Hall
19 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
20 Hamburg, Germany – Docks
22 Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
23 Stockholm, Sweden – Fållan
24 Copenhagen, Denmark – Store Vega
26 Berlin, Germany – Huxleys
27 Warsaw, Poland – Klub Stodola
29 Budapest, Hungary – Dürer Kert Main Hall
30 Vienna, Austria – Flex
31 Munich, Germany – Muffathalle
June
2 Zurich, Switzerland – Komplex 457
3 Milan, Italy – Magazzini Generali
6 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Barcelona
10 Prague, Czech Republic – Rock for People
12 Porto, Portugal – Primavera Porto
12 Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands – Best Kept Secret