Jake Bugg Live Review
Jake Bugg is on a tour of the UK in late 2013, he has just announced a new album, and he played the Brighton Centre on Tuesday the 22nd of October.
Its a wet and windy evening outside the Brighton as we join the queue at 5:50pm and the queue is already substantial despite the doors opening at 6:30pm. It seems as though Jake Bugg is the hottest ticket in town, and we eagerly await the gig!
To our surprise there are two support bands! One being The Family Rain and the other a duo from America called Honey Honey. The family Rain begin their short set at 7.30 playing various songs from their EP. Pushing It was enjoyable, with clean guitar riffs, thumping bass lines and simple yet effective drum beats. The sound blows me away initially, having not listened to them before, I was pleasantly surprised. And as soon as they came on, they had finished, all over in less than half an hour.
The next support were an American two-piece folk outfit, called Honey Honey, they are greeted with warm cheers from some of the crowd and they begin their set. One half of the band sits behind a drum kit and plays the guitar at the same time, and the other half stands with a banjo, or violin and sings. It is clear that they are both highly talented individuals who have come to together in an orgy of Mumford and Sons and Noah And The Whale, however the music although very pleasant, is not too exciting. There is the occasional swaying from side to side from the singer, and that movement is mirrored by some of the crowd, but overall not as exciting as The Family Rain with their stand out guitar tiffs and scraggly hair.
Jake Bugg, then walks on to the stage to the sound of cheers and Leadbelly! Which is rather fitting. He dives straight in with a song from his new album (Shan Gri La) and when I first hear his voice live, it hits you like a brick wall, a powerful, yet mellow, its amazing to think he is only 19. He then plays a few songs from his first album, beginning with the brilliant Trouble Town, a song clearly written about a struggle and the desire to get out. The crowd begin to move more and more as Jake plays Seen It All, a personal favourite of mine from the album, Jake smiles at bassist Jack Atherton as he plays a bass solo during Seen it All which is straight from The Stone Roses! After this, Jack and Tom (Drummer) walk off as Jake speaks to the crowd for the first time, telling us he will play a couple of acoustic songs, kicking off with the pleasant country song, and as the lights change to focus on Jake portraying him as an almost angelic figure the crowd sing along to every word. It seems this pleasant finger picking acoustic guitar style is a million miles away from Jake's new heavier sound, and he treats us to at least 5 songs from the new album. It is clear however that Jake is not one for massive crowd interaction, some would say this is a bad thing, but I happen to think its a good thing, he doesn't need to waffle on about what he did before the gig, the fans know he is not one for talking and he is more about his music which should be enough to take his fans on the journey that is his new album. When Tom and Jack walk back on stage, Jake has changed his guitar from an acoustic to a fender telecaster, which signals to me and the crowd that he is going to play a couple of new "heavier" tracks, and dully he does. What doesn't kill you was the first taste we got of the new album and the explosive riff and powerful vocals signal that Jake has taken a new direction and it sounds flawless when played live! the single was released a month ago and hearing it played live only increased my liking of it. He also played his latest single Slumville Sunrise, which has a similar riff to Taste it from the first album, again the vocal style differs from the first album, on the record anyway, it sounds much more cleaner and maybe that's to do with Rick Rubin who has produced the new album, or maybe Jake decided to tread a new path. But either way, the song is brilliant live, full of energy and power, the crowd enjoys it too and Jake even manages a little smile at the end of the song. Jake then does a fantastic version of Broken, he slows the pace a little bit which encourages the audience to sing along! The lightning also changes and it shines down on Jake almost like an angelic figure which for this song is extremely fitting, just pure vocals and acoustic guitar. He finishes off with the song that made him, in my opinion not his best song, but is still fantastic, of course, it was Lightning Bolt, and as the song draws to end Jake extends a solo and then it ends, he waves to all the stands and people on the ground as he walks off on to the next one. For someone so young, he has great stage presence and with the new album sounding great, I think and hope he will have a successful career!
Highlight for me - Taste It, Seen it all and Slumville Sunrise
To our surprise there are two support bands! One being The Family Rain and the other a duo from America called Honey Honey. The family Rain begin their short set at 7.30 playing various songs from their EP. Pushing It was enjoyable, with clean guitar riffs, thumping bass lines and simple yet effective drum beats. The sound blows me away initially, having not listened to them before, I was pleasantly surprised. And as soon as they came on, they had finished, all over in less than half an hour.
The next support were an American two-piece folk outfit, called Honey Honey, they are greeted with warm cheers from some of the crowd and they begin their set. One half of the band sits behind a drum kit and plays the guitar at the same time, and the other half stands with a banjo, or violin and sings. It is clear that they are both highly talented individuals who have come to together in an orgy of Mumford and Sons and Noah And The Whale, however the music although very pleasant, is not too exciting. There is the occasional swaying from side to side from the singer, and that movement is mirrored by some of the crowd, but overall not as exciting as The Family Rain with their stand out guitar tiffs and scraggly hair.
Jake Bugg, then walks on to the stage to the sound of cheers and Leadbelly! Which is rather fitting. He dives straight in with a song from his new album (Shan Gri La) and when I first hear his voice live, it hits you like a brick wall, a powerful, yet mellow, its amazing to think he is only 19. He then plays a few songs from his first album, beginning with the brilliant Trouble Town, a song clearly written about a struggle and the desire to get out. The crowd begin to move more and more as Jake plays Seen It All, a personal favourite of mine from the album, Jake smiles at bassist Jack Atherton as he plays a bass solo during Seen it All which is straight from The Stone Roses! After this, Jack and Tom (Drummer) walk off as Jake speaks to the crowd for the first time, telling us he will play a couple of acoustic songs, kicking off with the pleasant country song, and as the lights change to focus on Jake portraying him as an almost angelic figure the crowd sing along to every word. It seems this pleasant finger picking acoustic guitar style is a million miles away from Jake's new heavier sound, and he treats us to at least 5 songs from the new album. It is clear however that Jake is not one for massive crowd interaction, some would say this is a bad thing, but I happen to think its a good thing, he doesn't need to waffle on about what he did before the gig, the fans know he is not one for talking and he is more about his music which should be enough to take his fans on the journey that is his new album. When Tom and Jack walk back on stage, Jake has changed his guitar from an acoustic to a fender telecaster, which signals to me and the crowd that he is going to play a couple of new "heavier" tracks, and dully he does. What doesn't kill you was the first taste we got of the new album and the explosive riff and powerful vocals signal that Jake has taken a new direction and it sounds flawless when played live! the single was released a month ago and hearing it played live only increased my liking of it. He also played his latest single Slumville Sunrise, which has a similar riff to Taste it from the first album, again the vocal style differs from the first album, on the record anyway, it sounds much more cleaner and maybe that's to do with Rick Rubin who has produced the new album, or maybe Jake decided to tread a new path. But either way, the song is brilliant live, full of energy and power, the crowd enjoys it too and Jake even manages a little smile at the end of the song. Jake then does a fantastic version of Broken, he slows the pace a little bit which encourages the audience to sing along! The lightning also changes and it shines down on Jake almost like an angelic figure which for this song is extremely fitting, just pure vocals and acoustic guitar. He finishes off with the song that made him, in my opinion not his best song, but is still fantastic, of course, it was Lightning Bolt, and as the song draws to end Jake extends a solo and then it ends, he waves to all the stands and people on the ground as he walks off on to the next one. For someone so young, he has great stage presence and with the new album sounding great, I think and hope he will have a successful career!
Highlight for me - Taste It, Seen it all and Slumville Sunrise
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