LIVE REVIEW: Jai Wolf's Cure to Loneliness
All photos by Brendan Cecich.
Embarking on his Cure to Loneliness tour, Jai Wolf stopped over in sunny Perth, turning up the heat on our hottest recorded day in November.
Walking in to Jack Rabbits, the venue was visibly quiet and most people were sticking to the edges of the venue. Although PRISCILLA were playing to the best of their ability, a majority of the set the only person on the dancefloor was our photographer Brendan. Noticing the quieter crowd, the Perth duo created a good vibe and atmosphere with their music, playing through from their first ever released song, ‘You’ve Faded’ through to their latest, ‘Circles’. They gave the context and stories behind all their songs, allowing us to sit back and vibe, even through their “pingaz song” ‘Feeling Higher’.
For reasons unknown to us, Golden Vessels had to pull out at the last minute. Although a little disappointing, I’m sure there was good reason behind it. It did throw the atmosphere off a little, as many were excited to see him perform.
As 9:30pm approached the dance floor began to fill up in anticipation for Jai Wolf. After a little while he emerged to background visuals of an astronaut, his new album’s mascot, floating through space to set the scene for the night.
Starting off it took a while for the crowd to get warmed up, although visibly began to enjoy it a few songs in. Jai played through his discography, but also mixed in remixes of ‘Say My Name’ by Odesza, switchy up the vibe from his spacey style. He even had a trap remix of backed by fire visuals to heat the night up.
Although the venue was quite quiet, those that were on the dancefloor were singing and dancing their hearts out (hats off to the older gentleman grooving and clapping along like there was no tomorrow!). The edges around the outside did feel slightly awkward, and although Jai Wolf was doing his best to hype the crowd up, it did come off as a bit overdone.
Jai’s ‘Feels’ remix, ‘Starlight’ and ‘Like It’s Over’ were clear favourites with the crowd, but nothing compared to the energy when ‘Lose My Mind’ came on and a wave of nostalgia flooded the venue. He kept the crowd dancing through the night, mixing between different genres of electronica. The night ended on Jai’s biggest hit, ‘Indian Summer’, with cries for an encore falling on deaf ears.
The visuals were amazing to complement the synthy, astro vibe of the set, although the energy on the night did feel a bit off. For those that were diehard fans, they had a great night, but for the rest of us around the edges it didn’t seem to be an overly outstanding experience. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the smaller crowd, maybe it was the last minute set change, but we left the venue feeling “ehh” - and that’s okay, you can’t win them all.