Jack Peñate Live at the Garden Court :: Wessex Scene Online

Jack Peñate Live at the Garden Court

20th February 2010
Will Dalton

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LIVE takes a trip to our very own Garden Court for a weekend of Passion Pit, Peñate, and pints - Will Dalton gives us the low-down.

For most people the Halloween weekend was spent staggering to and from house parties caked in fake blood, but for those who opted against imitating zombies and the like, a weekend of fine entertainment was provided by SUSU. The highly esteemed Jack Peñate graced the Garden Court stage on Friday. and without disappointment.

Penate’s set was preceded by Brooklynbased Theophilus London, whose slick flow matched every step of the way by eye-catching dance moves. Despite being unknown, Theophilus was hell-bent on engaging his Southampton audience, and even if the brief dance he shared on stage with a rather embarrassed crowd member did have an air of awkwardness, you couldn’t fault his efforts.

It wasn’t long however until Peñate bounded onto the stage brimming with enthusiasm and vigour. The aptly titled, ‘Everything Is New’ opened the set, reminding the audience of the more innovative and mature direction his album of the same name has taken. The acoustic strumming and ‘mockney’ singing have been abandoned in favour of African drumbeats and wailing vocals - a sound that has earned Peñate countless plaudits since the record’s release in June.

This wasn’t to say that the crowd favourites from debut album Matinee were ignored though. Despite the lukewarm reviews the album received, the hits ‘Have I Been a Fool’, ‘Second Minute or Hour’ and ‘Torn On The Platform’ still carry a great deal of charm and catchiness. ‘Torn...’, the track that first earned Jack mainstream recognition drew the biggest reaction of the night.

Yet, the crowd were jumping again in raucous shout-a-long to ‘Lets All Die’. Penate’s manic flailing limbs were being mimicked on the dancefloor, and the stage-audience chemistry climaxed memorably with the whole venue chanting the last lines of the song: “Out of the womb, and into the tomb!” The morose lyrics and joyful atmosphere met in the perfect disharmony Penate intended.

This rowdiness came to a head during ‘Pull My Heart Away’ when Penate was joined on stage by Theophilus London. The rapping added new dimension to the track with Theophilus’ fine additional verse teeing up an emphatic final rendition of the chorus.

The set was brought to a close with summer hits ‘Be The One’ and ‘Tonight’s Today’; the mesmeric tones of the latter reverberating right through to the Stags Head and beyond. The crowd had danced themselves into the ground, an effort that didn’t go unnoticed by Penate, who commented how the audience had been “lipping amazing”.

Score: 100%