Concert Review: The Jungle Giants Hailing from Brisbane, indie pop quartet The Jungle Giants took the stage at Orchard Hotel’s TAB on Apr 26, treating fans to a dynamic performance filled with the infectious tunes from their debut album, Learn to Exist.

Moving out of their comfort zone of Down Under to play in South East Asia, the band took over the sound waves of the bustling cities of Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila and Singapore. It was also a good opportunity to plug the new music video for their single “Every Kind of Way” as well as the highly anticipated release of a new album in August later this year.

While there were a mix of people in the audience; the drunk, the high-on-life under-aged teens and what we classify as “the rest”, everyone was buzzing throughout the night singing their hearts out with the larger-than-life front man Sam Hales.

The crowd went ballistic as the four-piece band delivered an explosive performance – quite literally. Hales pointed out that his guitar pedal “practically exploded” mid-way through their first song, “Come and Be Alone With Me”. Before fans panicked (or fretted that the concert had to end prematurely), Hales casually assured us the show would go on by doing it “the old-fashioned way” and without the help of any high tech enhancement.

The song, our personal favorite, definitely proved to be a great show-opener. The crowd continued to go insane; singing along and head banging to their next track, the 2011 single “Mr. Polite”. Throughout the night, the slightly tipsy Hales commanded the stage with ridiculous comments and constant prancing. At one point, he even remarked about the fact that band member, Cesira Aitken, had a bug and a piece of paper in her drink, proceeding to flick it at her (and still drink it afterwards), leaving the crowd in fits of laughter. Whether they were laughing at his remark or his drunken state is unclear, but entertaining nevertheless (He nearly knocked down a microphone stand as well).

Meanwhile, bassist Andrew Dooris showed much enthusiasm and managed to keep his bass playing perfect while showcasing his theatrical dance moves. Dooris’s jocular disposition coupled with his oh-so-fabulous fro, led the girls (or maybe just this writer) into a major swoon fest.

It wasn’t just the girls who were mesmerized though, the guys in the audience were thoroughly entertained with an almost angel-like portrayal of the guitar by Aitken, who matched it with her constant disapproving glances at Hales, as if to say, “Dude, have you had too much to drink?!” It was impossible to not shake your body and bump into almost everyone in your vicinity to the fun feel-good songs of The Jungle Giants.

“Can we see you go f***ing crazy?” yelled Hales before the band went full-force into one of their most-loved songs, the titular track from their 2012 EP “She’s A Riot.” Capping off their last Asian stop on the tour with Singapore, Hales left the stage and left us wanting more. We were rewarded with an encore performance of “You’ve Got Something” from the same EP, where he demanded the audience to put up both hands in unison and jump as high as we could. It made everyone feel like a bunch of robotic fools, but who dares go against Sam Hales? No one. So we jumped.

“That’s really all the songs we’ve got anyway,” responded Hales cheekily when the crowd cheered and demanded more after their encore performance.

Fans who sat on the edge of the stage during the encore opportunistically ran up to get a quick hug from Hales. A lucky fan even managed to snatch up drummer Keelan Bijker’s drumsticks!

UrbanWire was lucky enough to get a chance to meet the band after the show and bombard them with a billion and one selfies. Even “luckier”, our editor Manfred Tham, had his shirt and shoes soaked with the beer that Hales knocked over during our group photo.

Amidst all the chaos, we almost left without getting our signed poster! But thank god for Keelan who called us back. Will The Jungle Giants come back to Singapore? “You’ve got a deal!” Keelan assured us. Well, that means You’ve Got Something to look forward to when their new album releases. We’re sure they’ll be a riot again.

Tell us what you think of the concert in the Comments section below!

Setlist:

1. Come and Be Alone With Me
2. Mr. Polite
3. What Do You Think (tentative title)
4. Domesticated Man
5. Kooky Eyes (tentative title)
6. Anywhere Else
7. She’s A Riot
8. Every Kind of Way
9. Skin To Bone
10. I Am What You Want Me to Be

Encore:
11. You’ve Got Something    

Photo courtesy of Daniel Ho of OneClickWonders.