Spiritual dance, ceremonial dance

See Jungle live is to feel completely absorbed into an infinite spiritual ceremony typical of any voodoo community ritual in which the music takes on a life of its own and is personified before you as one more. Where the audience enters a trance led and controlled by the members of the British band and from the first song they can truly do whatever they want with them.

Precise in execution, impeccable, with tremendously admirable coordination. Jungle were seen at the Movistar Arena in Madrid with the teeth of their beautiful vintage music machine perfectly sharpened. There was no room for error and that is why the night seemed to make them almost inhuman. The show started in gold, handing the keys to that “Forever” from 2018 using hits like “Smile” or “Beat 54 (All Good Now)” and quickly merging it into the present by sneaking “The Wave” into the first block of the event. Fast, effective, Jungle moved on stage like masters of shadows to masterfully execute each stage proposal prepared in detail and fully dedicated to elevating each song. A very visual initiative in which light was as important as sound, in which the spotlights stared at the audience, mutated, changed color, felt and spoke their own language seeking to tell the story that each theme hid.

The communication with the public was fair and the few times they did it was generated to show their gratitude to the fans or to try to maintain the brilliance of the night with the intensity it deserved. “In the United Kingdom, Monday nights are like Friday nights or Saturday nights. We have our things, our traumas,” Tom said jokingly and encouraging the party to detonate. The point was not to stop the rhythm, for the synths to push, for the basses to do their thing, pumping the blood under the leadership of Geo Jordan, for the collective’s musical tradition to end up being king. And, on the other hand, finish celebrating and give Kitto the space he deserves. She was undoubtedly one of the central axes of the show, as she has been in the last two albums of the project: “Who was going to tell us ten years ago that we were going to have such an incredible vocalist.”

They are a brilliant team of musicians, people who connect with each vibration in a special way. A family that even joked “Spanishized” when they introduced George Day, percussion with Will Fry; and Tom asked the audience to shout his name in Spanish, which ended with a crowd saying “Jorge Día” to applause. As the night progressed, there was a feeling in the atmosphere that everything had already been won and even more so when discovering how well the songs from Jungle’s new album worked live and how the proposal exploded with that perfect triptych of “Come Back To Me”, “Sunshine” and a beautiful “Candle Flame” belonging to its predecessor. The same did not happen, it is true, with “Dominoes” that would come later, signing as one of the weakest songs of the event. But, at that point, the truth is that they could more than afford it.

Tom asked that they shine natural light on the audience before starting “Move Like You Do.” He wanted to see his people and then get back into his precious bubble of protection. Making a repertoire of twenty-seven songs live and doing it in such a fine way is not easy and, of course, it gives you plenty of room to allow yourself any type of license, such as releasing those transparent balls that the audience played with in “Coming Back.” But there were few moments when they resorted to this kind of support beyond the music, because they didn’t really need it and because the fans were already so mesmerized by the performance of the show that they just wanted more and more. The fluidity of Kwaye’s movements, which you couldn’t stop looking at, as he moved, regardless of his own vocal brilliance, as a perfect accompaniment to Kitto. The hypnotic dance moment in “Don’t Play,” which felt like a recreation of one of their live music videos. All the pieces fit together fantastically and the machinery continued to perform at its best until the closing. Among the great milestones of the event, we should highlight once again the spectacular proposal that is always generated around “Drops”, that song from the beginning that, apart from the most popular singles, has become one of the emblems in Jungle’s live shows. Or how the public was excited by the union of worlds between the psychedelia of “Casio” and the idolized “Back On 74”.

The truth is that when you leave a Jungle concert you leave in love with the music much more than you already were. You understand how important it is for us as a community and that thanks to it you can allow yourself to disconnect from time to time and tell yourself that everything is fine. And it is likely that this sweetened sensation is only the final effect of the trance, which we mentioned at the beginning, which you go through throughout the show and which you do not want to get out of. Although, to understand what we are talking about, the only solution is to go see Jungle live at least once in your life. And do it by giving body and soul, without prejudices involved, wanting to dance and willing to receive everything they want to give you.