Pick of the Week: Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys at Franklin Park on Friday
The Lost Boys #TheLostBoys
It was easy to take Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys for granted.
They’re good. It’s not that they’re not good. As a collective Yakima audience, we all acknowledged they’re good years ago.
The thing that made me take the school-kid trio for granted was their omnipresence. For a long stretch it seemed like they played every single Yakima Valley venue every single day and night. Trip to the farmers market? Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys would be there. Pint of beer at a taproom? Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys. Preschool graduation? Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys. If I opened my front door to go for a walk, they’d be doing a two-hour set on the lawn.
I didn’t mind. They were reliably entertaining at all of those shows. But the fact that I could see them play virtually whenever I wanted meant that I didn’t fully appreciate them. Then the COVID pandemic hit, and all of a sudden I went like a year and a half without any Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys at all. No Isaac Gambito doing cool-guy guitar moves and adding classic teen-pop-soul vocals. No Nico Gambito holding it down (and providing the occasional flourish) on drums. No Jayleigh Ann Butler belting it out to the back row.
I missed them. But now they’re back, playing the city of Yakima’s Summer Sunset Concert Series at Franklin Park on Friday. And, based on the videos they’ve posted in the interim, they’ve only gotten better. There are more original songs, better contributions from Nico, expanded use of Isaac’s multiple talents and a new sense of nuance and restraint to Jayleigh Ann’s vocals (though she can still let loose to great effect when called upon).
This isn’t their first post-pandemic show; they’ve actually played quite a few at venues throughout the Valley and the state. Of course they have. They’re the hardest-working band in town. Pretty soon they’ll be everywhere again, all the time. I’ll try not to take that for granted anymore.
What: Jayleigh Ann & The Lost Boys
Where: Franklin Park, 2101 Tieton Drive