Live Review: Concrete Jungle – A Jungle Love Fundraiser
Coming into its third year, Jungle Love Festival knows there’s a fire in the jungle that is the Australian music festival market. Now Jungle Love has to navigate the smoking foliage with creativity and intelligence to avoid the same fate as fellow festivals Soundwave, Future Music, and most recently Stereosonic. Creativity and intelligence is what Jungle Love Festival brings to the table with their pre-game warehouse party and fundraiser Concrete Jungle! What an intro, right?!
The event throws a slew of eager punters into a suburban warehouse with some of the state’s best musicians, artists, live performancers, and a BYO sign to boot. It was an experience to say the least, even posing an interesting eff you to the State’s coming lock-out laws.
The Concrete Jungle experience hits even before entering the warehouse. Jumping out of our Uber at the nearest bottle-o to the venue, it’s apparent everyone attending had the same idea. From the glittery girl dressed all in white ( including white dyed hair), and the guy with a headdress like the fortune teller from ‘Big’ (with Tom Hanks), the festival feeling spread from the warehouse across the suburb. On the trek to the warehouse groups of late teens to 30-somethings dotted the streets with packs of tinnies over-shoulder, bringing back memories of suburbia teenage house parties – nostalgia gold.
Jumping into the music, Concrete Jungle offers an awesome seven band line-up going the extra mile from the run of the mill four band show. Quasi Smith bravely took the opening spot and set the mood with their pop-punk energy, it’s been a while since the event and I still have the hook from their second last song stuck in my head, “beachbeachbeachbeachbeach”.
My favourite act from the night was definitely The Royal Artillery. Sporting a killer lead singer/guitarist and a shirtless legend on drums, the duo smashed out an epic set – finishing off with a cover of The Guess Who’s classic American Woman. Across the night punters were also graced by sick performances by beneb, Dubarray, In Void, The Vaudeville Smash, and Omegachild.
Easily the most interesting part of the night came from below… Hidden in the very back of the warehouse was a set of stairs that led down and what met you at the bottom was a shock. In the centre of the room a smoke machine endlessly spewed smoke into the room, so much so that you could only see a few metres ahead. Next to it a bubble machine blew bubbles into the smoke so that as they popped gusts of smoke would release, it was really cool!
Beyond that an eerie music surrounded the room played by a single guitarist, a uniquely tuned guitar and an army of ambient effects pedals – occasionally joined by another with a vocal feedback mic. The icing on the cake was the performances by three women painted in red with white faces. They wore white tulle wrapped around their heads with blood-like paint smear through it. The women would move painfully slow, contorting their bodies into uncomfortable positions. Heck, it even made me uncomfortable. If there was an over-arching point to be made with the show I missed it, but it was intense. Seriously, check them out they’re called Theatre of Thunder.
Facing the frightening failings of fellow festivals, Jungle Love’s pre-game Concrete Jungle should give its organisers the confidence to take on the festival game. Concrete Jungle tackles the daunting topic of Queensland’s impeding lockout laws with a glorious eff you, giving Queenslanders a new format to par-tay and discover the incredible talent the state, particularly Brisbane, harbors. I give it 4 and a half Happy Jacks (Editor), would recommend!
Grab your Jungle Love Festival ticket HERE
