Jake Bugg Brisbane Review @ The Triffid

The crowd at The Triffid (21 April) went up in screams and applause as the infamous lad from Nottingham took the stage.

But young Jake Bugg is not one for pleasantries and small talk. Without a second of hesitation he picked up his faithful brown acoustic and launched strait into the bone-warming opening song ‘How Soon The Dawn’.

The tour Jake has brought to Australia this time 'round is a solo one. Just the man himself standing up on stage with nothing but his guitar, his beautiful voice and his unique mind.


Jake plays amazingly in the band (I’ve seen it before), but what his solo performance offers for fans and followers of his music is a chance to cut through all the excess flare and fluff. To stand directly in front of this bard of our own time and connect directly to the soul and essence of his music in the most intimate of ways.

Click here for more photos from the show.

For though Jake is an amazing musician on all fronts, his point of difference has always been his songwriting.

From his self-titled debut album released when he was 19 through to his recent fourth album ‘Hearts That Strain’, Jake has been taking people by surprise with a depth of insight and lyricism that has always made him seem well beyond his years.

And for those of us who have been following his journey from the start it is this very subtle and sagacious gem wrapped up under his nonchalant and deadpan demeanour that we had come to catch a glimpse of. And glimpse it we did. But by no means was it a soft strumming, kumbaya session.


Jake certainly knows how to bring it all the way down to the tenderest of moments where he plucks at your heart strings with the softest of fingers. But he also knows how to shift the gears, rev it up and put some fire in your bones.

Songs like ‘Slumville Sunrise’, ‘There's A Beast And We All Feed It’, ‘What Doesn't Kill You’ and the classic ‘Lightning Bolt’ are high-voltage burners where Jake gets the chance to exhibit his ability to boil the blood.

To summon fast and energetic music that bounds and bounces along with a high pulse while he sings and strums away at lightspeed through tongue twisters with ease.

It was seeing these songs performed solo that confirmed for me that although the band can bring it all to life, Jake’s fire has always been his own and he is well-able to blaze it on his own too.

Jake is a man of few words. He was friendly and courteous enough between songs, and even dealt with a drunken heckler quite well and with a pinch of humour. But you got the sense that he almost preferred to brush through the in-betweens and bouts of applause as quickly as possible, so he could get on with it and do what he was made for.


And when he was doing what he was made for, when he was in the midst of it, you’ve never seen a man more at home. Seeming as solid as a stone and without a thing in the world to prove, he stood on stage without a flinch and swung on his pendulum from the most vulnerable places in his soul through to the most fiery and bold.

There were moments he created, like in the song ‘Broken’ where the whole room fell silent, soaking the air with a beauty so soft and sacred that to try and speak about it would only sully and detract from the experience. Perhaps this is the very reason why he has learned over time to keep the chatting and pretensions in-between to a minimum.

As a fan who’s been following Mr Bugg since I was in my teens, I must say, I was satisfied. No song I had wanted to hear was left out and every song, whether electrifying or touching, was a thousand times better than in the recordings.

He may have been humble in manner but when it came to playing he gave nothing but pure passion.

Being the same age as Jake, it was a privilege to get to see someone who I consider to be a bard and voice of our time and generation play in the flesh. And at only 24, expect to see much more from Jake Bugg.