Spacey Jane at Roundhouse: your life is a movie
If I hadn’t seen the time, I’d have thought we arrived halfway through Spacey Jane‘s set on Friday.
The upper tier was grooving, pockets of excitement were bouncing throughout the crowd like a pan of water on the cusp of boiling and this was the opening song. There was no time to settle in.
Last night’s sell-out show at Roundhouse was their biggest outside of Australia, so far.
Spacey Jane are proof that Aus is a mood. The sunshine-infused guitars cast a golden hour glow on the crowd that pulls you out of the London winter behind the double doors at the back.
They’re a soundtrack to a specific moment in your life. The sort of music you can vividly associate with memories. Your life is a movie.
You know when you see a band that is so tightly aligned and on a fate-driven road to success. They play flawlessly, sell out bigger venues on each visit and infect you with a feeling that blows up your pupils and have you soaking in more than just the sound and visuals.
There are two paths you can take when you create a band in the middle of strange times. You can either reflect on the gloom and cajole a sombre march even deeper into it or you can inspire and lift people out of it. Forging an escape that you can lay over the top of reality.
Spacey Jane have boldly taken the second route, embodied by the frenzied, fun-loving audience they draw to each show.
It raises the question, how can a band formed in isolation have such a connection with an audience? Birthed amidst a lockdown, they’re a continual source of promise in a period of time that is seemingly lacking it.
There was clearly no other option for them. They took the leap of faith toward mastering their sound and delivering what they had to and it’s paid off.
From Ashton’s semi-threatening, semi-seductive moves comparable to Spider’s from School of Rock on speed to the studio-quality musical performance, they’re now on a course with enough momentum to exceed, I imagine, even their own expectations.
To crank the wholesome level up to 100, I bumped into Kieran’s (drums) parents at the end. They’ve travelled over from Texas and are joining them for their European shows – just not for the pints afterwards.
If I have any concern at all, it’s that Caleb didn’t do a shoey on stage two songs in.