Music / Bristol Sounds
Review: Jungle, Lloyds Amphitheatre – ‘The energy never dulls’
As Kelly Lee Owens warms up for Jungle on the Saturday stint of Bristol Sounds, she keeps yelling “Bristol!”. She manages to work it into every song, which is actually rather impressive.
It could have been a cruel reminder that we aren’t at Glastonbury, but it doesn’t sting. There’s nowhere else the crowd would rather be.
The festival kicked off in the early afternoon, and the tension for the evening’s headliner had been building; the crowd struck by a case of the Jungle jitters.
is needed now More than ever
By the time they’re testing the stage lights, we can hardly contain ourselves. People are already cheering, and strangers are hitching themselves up onto one another’s shoulders.
The collective is spearheaded by Tom McFarland – photo: Mia Smith
A sickly sweet smell of vape and cider rises as Jungle’s Tom McFarland greets us with open arms.
The collective launch into Keep Moving, a track that grows slowly into a smooth disco groove. The crowd seem to magically know all the words, immediately cast under their funky spell.
From there the energy never dulls. McFarland raises a toast to us, beaming as he demands us to “start swinging those hips”. And we do. The crowd’s energy is unlike any I’ve seen: to my left someone is waving a plastic baby, clapping its little arms together; to my right someone is wielding a crutch in the air.
Jungle’s bright electronic oeuvre begs to be played in the open air, and as the sun sets on Harbourside, the scene is perfect. The collective throw their arms round one another and take a good old fashioned bow, McFarland blowing us one final kiss.
Shouts of “one more song!” soon bounce across the amphitheatre, and they return triumphant for Casio and Busy Earnin, crowdpleasers in every sense of the word.
There’s something strange about feeling concrete rather than mud beneath your feet, and looking over the river Avon rather than rolling hills, but it somehow seems to make sense.
After a two-year hiatus, Bristol Sounds is truly back and better than ever, and there’s no headliner as special as Jungle to bring it home.
Main photo: Mia Smith
Read more: Review: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Lloyds Amphitheatre – ‘A sense of nostalgia and disbelief’
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