STURGIS, S.D. — Every once in a while, you watch a concert and walk away knowing you just witnessed something bigger than another night of live music.

Sunday night at the Legendary Buffalo Chip was one of those nights.

YUNGBLUD came to Sturgis for the final American stop of his IDOLS World Tour, and if this was his goodbye to the United States for a while, he made damn sure nobody in the Black Hills was going to forget it.

Because after watching YUNGBLUD command the Buffalo Chip stage, one thing became abundantly clear:

This guy is a rock star.

Not because of streaming numbers, awards, sold-out shows or celebrity collaborations. Those things certainly don’t hurt.

He’s a rock star because the second he walks onto a stage, you can’t take your eyes off him.

YUNGBLUD — born Dominic Harrison — possesses something that can’t really be manufactured. He’s unpredictable, charismatic, slightly dangerous and completely comfortable standing in front of thousands of people and demanding every ounce of their attention.

Sunday night, he got it.

He ran. He jumped. He screamed. He danced. He prowled across the massive Buffalo Chip stage and worked the crowd like someone who has spent his entire life preparing for exactly this moment.

More importantly, he connected.

There is a huge difference between performing at a crowd and performing with one, and YUNGBLUD understands that distinction better than most.

At times Sunday night, the barrier between the stage and the audience almost seemed to disappear.

That’s become the defining characteristic of YUNGBLUD’s live shows throughout this tour. Following his Red Rocks performance earlier this year, Westword described a crowd roaring back at him as he repeatedly pushed them to get louder. A Washington, D.C., review described his show as part rock concert, part rally and part communal release.

Fans have been saying much the same thing.

After seeing him in Portland, one first-time concertgoer described it as the most energetic and overwhelmingly positive show he’d ever attended, adding that while he already thought the music was good, the live performance was on an entirely different level. Another relatively new fan who attended the Atlanta show called the concert a “AAA experience” and specifically pointed to YUNGBLUD’s interaction with the audience as proof of how much he genuinely cares about his fans.

That reputation arrived in Sturgis with him Sunday night.

And honestly, the Buffalo Chip might have been the perfect place for it.

There is something beautifully chaotic about a YUNGBLUD show that fits the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Thousands of motorcycles, leather, tattoos, fire, noise and people from every possible walk of life gathering in one place because, for a few hours, nothing else matters.

Throw YUNGBLUD into the middle of that?

It works.

His music may represent a newer generation of rock, but what he does onstage comes from a much older tradition.

Great frontmen have always understood that a concert is supposed to feel a little dangerous. It’s supposed to feel spontaneous. It’s supposed to make you wonder what might happen next.

YUNGBLUD has that.

There are flashes of punk rock rebellion, classic rock swagger and the kind of theatricality that once defined the larger-than-life frontmen who made rock music feel dangerous in the first place.

But he isn’t trying to impersonate them.

He’s doing it his way.

That may ultimately be why YUNGBLUD feels so important to rock music right now.

For years we’ve heard the same tired conversation about whether rock is dead, whether there will ever be another generation of legitimate rock stars or whether guitar-driven music can still command massive audiences.

Then you watch a guy like YUNGBLUD walk onto a stage in the middle of the Black Hills and completely take control of thousands of people.

Rock isn’t dead.

Not even close.

Pollstar recently described YUNGBLUD’s live presence in remarkably similar terms, pointing to his swagger, powerful voice and ability to command an audience. An aggregation of more than 100 professional concert reviews describes his shows with words including “lively,” “maximalist,” “emotional” and “defiant.”

Those words fit Sunday night.

But I’d add one more:

Memorable.

This was the final stop of YUNGBLUD’s current American run. His official tour schedule had Sturgis following dates in Indianapolis, Chicago, Columbus, Council Bluffs and Billings, and his fan community was already referring to Buffalo Chip as the final stop of the IDOLS run before he arrived.

That gave Sunday night’s show a little extra weight.

The last American crowd.

The last night.

And one hell of a place to finish it.

The Legendary Buffalo Chip has hosted some of the biggest names in rock history over the decades. Legends have stood on that stage. Icons have played underneath those South Dakota stars while motorcycles stretched seemingly forever into the campground.

Sunday night felt like watching another artist who may very well be headed toward that territory.

Maybe that’s the biggest compliment I can give YUNGBLUD.

I went into the night expecting a great concert. I walked away understanding the hype. There are plenty of talented singers.

There are plenty of great bands. There are plenty of artists capable of putting on a polished show.

But legitimate frontmen, the people who can walk onto a stage, grab thousands of strangers by the throat and hold their attention until the final note, are much harder to find.

YUNGBLUD is one of them.

And on a Sunday night in Sturgis, South Dakota, during the final American show of his IDOLS World Tour, he didn’t just play the Buffalo Chip.

He owned it.