Kevin Bronson on February 8th, 2014

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Young the Giant are so … so … so … nice.

The Orange County quintet spent 90-plus minutes Friday night at the Palladium being exactly who they’ve always been – likable guys from the suburbs doing songs about young love and youthful aspirations with childlike exuberance. The fresh-faced crowd that packed the Hollywood venue ate it up, singing along to old songs and new as Young the Giant, with only two albums to the credit, packed a whopping 19 tunes into their set.

• ||| Photos by David Benjamin

The show was a third in Young the Giant’s “Mind Over Matter” tour – named for their sophomore album, which boasted production from Justin Meldal-Johnsen (M83, Paramore, Tegan and Sara) and was released in January. The tour runs well into April and encompasses more than 40 dates, and if Friday night was any indication, it will truly be a test of “Mind Over Matter” for singer Sameer Gadhia.

Gadhia, intense and focused all night, displayed his usual impressive vocal range – his crooning and soaring are reminiscent of a lot of Britpop’s leading men who exact great amounts of gravitas out of serpentine melodies. The sheer strength of Gadhia’s vocals, which fought for space and won amid piercing guitars from Jacob Tilley and Eric Cannata, Payam Doostzadeh’s bass and François Comtois’ drumming – will surely be tested by the end of Young the Giant’s run.

He had help on Friday. The quintet started the show with the first three songs from the new album, which meant third up was the single “It’s About Time,” which meant it was about time for a sing-along. Voices remained raised for the early single “Apartment” next, as the band then hopscotched between new songs and tracks from its 2010 debut “Young the Giant.”

“Cough Syrup” in the middle of the set and “Crystallized” near the end also earned a huge response as Young the Giant kept the songs coming at a brisk pace, with Gadhia pausing only briefly to acknowledge “a lot of familiar faces up front.” The band went out with an encore featuring the new song “Camera,” the second album’s title track and then their biggest single, “My Body.” By then, very few bodies had left the Palladium, the crowd seemingly entranced by the band’s charisma and display of sonic muscle. Young the Giant aren’t a dangerous crew, and there wasn’t a drop of bad-boy swagger to be found, but they are honest and on Friday night showed they could fill the Palladium.

Openers Cayucas’ sound, on the other hand, was a bit spindly to carry the cavernous room. The quartet – which includes twins Zach Yudin and Ben Yudin and Casey Wojtalewicz – gave it their level best, boldly starting the set a cappella and then sprinkling their tropical rhythms and sprightly pop songs on the Palladium’s early arrivals. Except for “East Coast Girl,” Cayucas’ set seemed tentative until the penultimate song, their single “High School Lover” (which, owing to that one lyric, was the only time we heard the F-bomb dropped all night). If you need a reminder that the acoustically challenged Palladium is not an intimate beachfront room, this was it, in 30 minutes.