Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo
Henry Talbot (left) and Joe Davies are the two zany minds behind Youz Dudez.
Fans don’t know what to expect at a Youz Dudez show.
Stage attire can be surprising. “The first one (show) was tight jeans and tight shirts,” said Joe Davies, 24, singer, keyboard player and computer programmer. “And I wear headbands and shades. This last time we wore jean shorts and cowboy boots. Old ’80s vintage vests. No shirt.”
Photo by Michael Donahue
Henry Talbot (left) and Joe Davies are the two zany minds behind Youz Dudez.
“I’ve gone barefoot every time,” said singer/keyboard player Henry Talbot, 25.
“Just that whole ’80s persona,” Davies said.
“Just trying to act as ridiculous as possible,” Talbot said.
They also dance. “We’re starting to get pretty good at the ‘mini-synth-while-running-in-place’ move (dancing and playing at the same time),” said Talbot, who does “a lot of finger pointing, a lot of stomping, intense gyrating.”
“People have described my dancing as kind of goofy,” Davies said. “A lot of ‘Jersey Shore’ fist pump, but fist pump incorporated into my own little mix of boogie.
“We’re just a party band with a party beat. Party boys.”
They got the idea for Youz Dudez last year. “Joe and I were riding back from Horseshoe,” Talbot said. “We’re kind of throwing back ‘Why haven’t we started something up? We should. We like a lot of the same music.’”
They made some rules. “First thing was, ‘We can’t rap our lyrics,’” Davies said.
“It’s so easy to fall into that,” Talbot said.
Explaining their name, Davies said, “I think it’s in reference to the ‘Jersey Shore’ slang. Some people mistake us for ‘Used Dudes.’ Like we’re an emo band or something.”
They collaborate on their originals. “Predator” is “about how we’re the predator and the audience is the prey. And they won’t escape our grasp.”
“Manscaper” is about womanizing, Davies said. In the song, Talbot is “in and out of women’s lives. I treat them real well. The very end I come around to his way of thinking and I treat them like dirt and they stick to us like mud.”
So what will Youz Dudez wear at their Christmas show?
“I think I have some ideas,” Davies said. “Some elf shoes. Elf hats. No shirt. Green-and-red suspenders over green-and-red corduroy shorts. That’s the perfect slut elf. We’re going for slutty elves.”
Listen Up spotlights area performers. Michael Donahue can be reached at 529-2797.
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