On September 30th, hip-hop duo Joey Valence & Brae brought their HYPERYOUTH World Tour to The Observatory in Santa Ana, California. The show at the 1,200 capacity venue in Orange County was sold-out, with an ever-growing line outside the venue even after the doors had opened. Joey Valence & Brae, often shortened to JVB, consists of rappers and best friends Joseph Bertolino and Braeden Lugue. They met during their freshman year at Penn State and started making music together, Joey producing all of their tracks. Some of their first singles ever released together got major attention on social media platforms, including “Crank It Up” and “Double Jump,” only to top those with the 2022 single “PUNK TACTICS,” a viral hit. The influences of classic hip-hop, Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, and Y2K-era club and dance music shines through their beats and lyrics as well as their love for video games, anime, and pop culture.
Opening the show was AG Club, a hip-hop group founded by Baby Boy and Jody Fontaine. Short for Avant Garde Club, they are a larger collective of all kinds of artists and creatives in multiple fields. On stage, Baby Boy and Jody Fontaine hyped up the crowd with their 2020 breakout single “Memphis,” which they remixed with NLE Choppa and A$AP Ferg. The duo got the audience more excited than an opener usually does, with everyone in the venue fully engaged and many knowing the words to quite a few of the songs. At one point, Fontaine made his way into the audience while performing and crowd surfed back to the stage. They finished the set with “BRASS,” getting everyone’s hands up to rock with them.
Before it was time for Joey Valence & Brae, their DJ, Ewook, came out to get the crowd moving with club classics and 2000s throwbacks like “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga, “I Love It” by Icona Pop, and “Rollin’” by Limp Bizkit. When JVB finally ran on stage to “HYPERYOUTH,” the audience went wild. The title track off their album just released in August, the crowd knew all the words, and the same love would go for the next ten songs they would play from the album. Before the tour started, the duo posted “tour rules” on social media encouraging everyone to live in the moment, leave their ego at the door, and most importantly: to dance. The themes of the album go hand in hand with this PSA, with songs about the fears of growing up and accepting change, but never letting the party die. Attendees clearly got the message, getting rowdier with each song played. JVB’s audience connects deeply with them and the sincerity and vulnerability in their music; there’s a yearning for a time that most fans were not alive or old enough to experience and it’s being revived through two guys from Pennsylvania making music in a bedroom. The crowd was dressed up in their best fits and homemade merch, featuring a favorite lyric or the disco-ball-demonhead featured on the album. There were fans with Joey Valence-inspired spiked hair, and some of them even had merch from their very first shows.
JVB went on to play their soon-to-be club classics, most notably “HOOLIGANG,” “OK,” and “STARTAFIGHT” during the first half of their set. While Joey gets goofy and exaggerates his facial expressions and movements on stage, Brae likes to bust a move and get jiggy with it. After the Bobby Caldwell-sampled song “HAVE TO CRY,” Brae took a moment to talk about how it’s his favorite song on the album and thanked everyone for the love on it and how much it means to him. When “SEE YOU DANCE,” featuring Rebecca Black, started, it was clear by the crowd’s reaction that it would only get bigger from there on out. Emulating the type of 2000s club song with a female singer over a bouncy beat, JVB continues to reinvent the genre while offering a nostalgia that is new and true to themselves. They continued with a medley of “FREAKS,” “GUMDROP,” and “Napalm,” and then finished with their explosive hit “PUNK TACTICS.” They came back on stage after a short break and the crowd chanting to perform “THE BADDEST” and “DISCO TOMORROW,” an ideal closer for the album and the tour. Everyone in the room had the feeling that this may very well be the last time they see JVB in a smaller venue, and they were savoring it and dancing like no one was watching.
Other than the music, one of the best things about seeing JVB live is witnessing how much fun they have on stage and with each other. It could not be more obvious that these two people are best friends and love to make music and perform together. It’s also unmistakable how much they love and appreciate the people that show up for them and give them the platform to do what they love. I have never seen an artist finish a show and immediately go to the sides of the stage to talk to the fans and sign anything for them without even taking a minute backstage after the set. Joey and Brae both did this for as long as possible, signing shirts, taking pictures, and making everyone they talked to feel special.
Get tickets to the rest of the HYPERYOUTH World Tour here: www.jvbsucks.com
GALLERY: Joey Valence & Brae at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California (September 30, 2025)
