Lumia Live presents: Jagwar Ma
12 June | Old Crown Courts, Bristol
Muscling through the crowd of Bristol’s Old Crown Court, Jagwar Ma make it to the stage and set about putting on a show that proves the enduring power of using unconventional spaces to host live music. Arguably one of the best shows in the Lumia Live series to date, the Sydney-born and London-based psych-dance outfit showcasing cuts from 2013’s debut LP Howlin’, shaking the courtroom with their sprawling beat-based crescendos.
The lounging choruses of songs like Come Save Me manage to juggle all the perks of a chart-chasing ear worm with the thumping lure of an electronic fuzz that would also galvanise the crowd in a 4AM sweatbox. With just three blokes on stage, Jagwar Ma generate a pulse that is continuous throughout – leaning against one another and creating an atmosphere of striking noise that rattled around the decommissioned courthouse. The advantage of the band playing this distinctive venue was their positioning in the centre of the room. Surrounded by onlookers from various tiers, the band’s organic brand of trip-pop was being thrown around the space in a way that left nobody disengaged.
The Madchester title is thrown towards Jagwar Ma a lot in the music press on account of their Brown-esque lacklustre vocal work and baggy beats holding down the simplest of melodies. Their live show seems to represent a similar ethos to their LP – a form of revivalism that isn’t reactionary but isn’t quite revolutionary. Seeing a band of psychedelia disciples perform in an abandoned home of bureaucracy is just as premeditated as it sounds, but when it comes with so little desperation and so much unmasked pleasure, it is hard to resist.
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Words: Duncan Harrison
Photography: This Is Mission
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