Jake Bugg [Concert Review]

January 14th -  I caught Jake Bugg at Sound Academy last week. It was a varied collection of music consisting of openers The Skins and Albert Hammond Jr. Even though the members of The Skins range from 15-21 they were by far the more impressive of the two opening acts. Hammond Jr.'s work was an overactive, Stroke's infused collection of power chords. They played 2 or 3 tracks that didn't sound like the B-side of an unreleased Stroke's album. These were by far Hammond Jr.'s top tracks were he found his stride crooning over some toe-tapping worthy rock.

The Skins don't look like a band. In a good way. Two teenage guitarists; a tiny female, toque donning bassist; a drummer straight out of Brooklyn in the 90's and a beautiful, vivacious, stage commanding female lead singer. After a shaky start on vocals she settled in and let loose ripping soulful, passionate lyrics overtop. The Skins really hit their stride when they jammed out hard rock infused with psychedelic hooks and bluesy verses on Ocean.

Jake Bugg walked out on stage like he's play 1000's of shows and slipped right into "There's a Beast and We All Feed It". With a voice as unique as his, in the digital era, one might expect some enhancement. He was record perfect live. Pine Trees might have been Bugg's best performance of all night. Taking a break from his apathetic demeanour breaking through to a moment of vulnerability. Though the high point came during the encore when Bugg did justice to one of the all time greats, Neil Young, with his rendition of My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue).