Jake Bugg: The Bugg Brand

I was lucky enough to get the chance to see Jake Bugg last Thursday at one of his three sold out gigs at the O2 Academy in Brixton. I’m only familiar with a handful of his songs, so I was actually quite surprised by his performance as a musician, singer and songwriter. Some people say he lacks charisma whilst performing, but I think they are confusing the word charisma with arrogance. Jake Bugg isn’t the kind of artist who needs to jump around the stage or smash a guitar to grab the audience’s attention; his music does that for him. Ok, so the only times he spoke in between songs were to thank the audience or to introduce the next song, but like the majority of the other audience members, I was there to enjoy his musical talent and that I certainly did. Jake started with a few of his well-known songs such as ‘There’s a Beast and We All Feed It’ and ‘Seen it All’. The energy was great, with the crowd loving every minute. The set was simple, Jake standing with his guitar and support from a bassist and drummer. The lighting was cool; the theme of the song and overall ambience was changed depending on what colour lights were used. The venue itself could have been nicer, but then again as soon as the place is dark you can look past the dirt and general badly maintained décor (mainly because you can’t actually see it). Half way through the gig Jake began to introduce songs from his new album, ‘Shangri La’. The weirdest thing was how different his singing voice is to his speaking voice, probably why he didn’t talk much. The first song he played from the new album was ‘Pine Trees’, one of his more mellow songs. This was followed by ‘Song About Love’ and ‘Slide’. The tone was soon picked up again though when he performed ‘Greenman’ and another one from his new album, ‘Kingpin’. By this point most people were up dancing or simply swaying along. Of course, the one Jake ended with had to be the infamous ‘Lightning Bolt’, the song that kick started his career. There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t up on their feet, a great way to end the gig! If you’re looking for a chilled night of music, then definitely go see and see Jake Bugg. Even if you don’t know many of his songs, you will be wanting to listen to more of him by the time you get home. The best thing about Jake is the fact that he can perform a wide range of music, from the fun upbeat songs, to the slower more relaxed ones. Coming from Nottingham he’s been described as an East Midlands Dylan, although to most he would probably be recognised as a product of the last 20 years of British guitar pop. It’s refreshing to see artists like Jake Bugg around, he is entertaining and talented, but the fame hasn’t got to his head and probably won’t any time soon. Unlike other overrated artists such as One Direction, he’s a genuinely modest guy and I expect he will do pretty well in the future if the preview from his new album is anything to go by. Going from playing the BBC Introducing stage at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival to selling out all of his London shows at the age of 19 is pretty amazing.

Jake’s new song ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ is out now on iTunes and his album Shangri La is to be released November 18.