Soulful rock band Young Gun Silver Fox returns to the Independent in San Francisco
Soulful pop-rock combo Young Gun Silver Fox makes a triumphant return to the Independent in San Francisco Thursday night, playing songs from the expanded deluxe re-release of their 2022 album Ticket to Shangri-La.
The brainchild of British singer/musician Andy Platt and prolific London-based American expatriate producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee, the project first came together in 2012. Both men already had well established careers, with Platt fronting the acclaimed soul-pop group Mamas Gun that he had co-founded, while Lee has put out dozens of albums and break records since he began his professional career in the '90s. In addition to the many recordings under his own name or with his Ping Pong Orchestra, Lee has produced numerous other collaborative efforts and contributed to many film and video game soundtracks, including the celebrated score to Rockstar Games' Bully.
Drawn to each other by their mutual love for the warmth and melodicism of '70s pop, soul and rock -- Steely Dan, Hall & Oates and latter-era Bill Withers were touchstones -- the two talented musicians began working on original material at Lee's Trans-Yank Studios in London's West End.
Releasing their debut album West End Coast on Légère Recordings in Europe in 2015 (it came out on Wax Poetics Records -- the imprint of the noted funk and hip-hop focused music journal -- in the U.S. the following year), YGSF showcased their knack for crafting immaculately produced, breezy soul-pop confections driven by taut drum grooves and Fender Rhodes electric piano licks that wouldn't have sounded out of place on AM radio during the late '70s.
While both players would continue to pursue their other bands and recording projects, Young Gun Silver Fox has become one of their most successful creative outlets. The group issued its sophomore album AM Waves in 2018 to another round of glowing reviews thanks to the insistent pop-funk hooks of "Lenny," "Kingston Boogie" and "Mojo Rising." The group's tight stage performances built YGSF a growing fan base in the UK as well as invitations to perform at various European music festivals.
While the pandemic shutdown curtailed any touring to promote the band's music in recent years, it did spur another round of productivity from the two avowed studio rats. Their third album Canyons came out in 2020, followed by their equally accomplished latest effort Ticket to Shangri-La late in 2022, further refining (if that's even possible) the Young Gun Silver Fox formula of Platt's soaring falsetto vocals and the band's kinetic grooves.
Last March, the band made its first ever U.S. jaunt, selling out most of the six dates on the limited tour and performing to ecstatic audiences. Late last year, Young Gun Silver Fox issued a deluxe version of Ticket to Shangri-La, that added four new tracks to the album including 12" disco mixes of "Rolling Back" and "Tip of the Flame." The band returns for a more extensive round of concerts that kicks off in Southern California before making its way to San Francisco for a return visit to the Independent Thursday night. They are joined by like-minded SF retro pop-funk quintet the Fell Swoop, who released their new album Swoopstakes in the fall of 2022. The Selecter DJ Kirk (Sweater Funk, The Revival) spins tunes before and between bands.
Young Gun Silver Fox
Thursday, Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m. $30-$35
The Independent
