Reviewed onTuesday July 26
Lupa J is the moniker of one Imogen Jones, a teenage multi-instrumentalist who would only just be scraping in were she attempting to gain entry to this 18+ show. Jones is an intriguing musical prospect, drawing a substantial crowd of early arrivals that visibly shocks her when the house lights illuminate the dark.
Essentially, Lupa J’s music sits at the centre of a Venn diagram comprising baroque-flavoured chamber indie (think Owen Pallett, Townhouses et al.) on one side and murky, minimal beats flickering and thumping below the surface on the other. Actualised in trio format, Jones confidently leads the fray through each bubbling and building soundscape. A faithful and fairly precise cover of Radiohead’s ‘Idioteque’ is telling (what artsy 18-year-old hasn’t proclaimed Radiohead their favourite band?), while a showing of fresh material is indicative of some seriously big potential. It’s a stretch at 45 minutes, but at such an early stage in proceedings, it’s very easy to forgive drawbacks like these. Jones has presented herself as one to watch – and, with a new EP recently released out into the wild, it would be foolhardy to not get in on the ground floor.
If it gives you any indication of the kind of pull Tegan And Sara still have, consider this: there have been people lining up for this show since early in the day, and said line had stretched all the way up the street by the time it came to doors opening. It’s a fervent fan base – one that fills the room with singing regardless of a song’s vintage – and one that has seen the duo through every stage of their career: indie darlings, folk hopefuls and now pop stars.
We’re down to a remarkably minimal live version of the band now – just the Quin sisters, a keyboardist and a drummer, with the twins primarily shifting their focus to singing rather than playing any instruments. They transform classic singles like ‘Walking With A Ghost’ and ‘Back In Your Head’ into shuffling dance tunes, while recent cuts like ‘Boyfriend’ and ‘U-Turn’ allow the dancefloor to be put to use.
There’s talk in between, of course – there’s chatter about Pokémon Go, hotel coffee and marriage equality, among other things – but it says a great deal that these songs speak for themselves. Tegan And Sara adapt and evolve – and, as a result, everybody wins.
