Institute of Contemporary Arts

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Jack Penate and Jamie Woon

Date: 29 July 2007

What I wrote about Just Jack and the name Jack in general yesterday, remains resolutely true in reference to Jack Penate. (Ah hah! That’s a fine way to get people to read my blog postings from the rest of the festival. Now you will have to look out of overwhelming intrigue.) Master Penate is every bit the Jack the lad and certainly has the same tendencies as a Jack Russell Terrier – he’s all energy,  jumping  up and down, screwing up his face, howling,  growling; he might even chew at his own trouser leg if it wasn’t  stuck on him so tightly.  Ultimately, Jack goes absolutely mental on stage. (Lee Evans anybody?) When Jack is given a guitar, it has the exact same effect as when you hand a pet one of those smelly toys that they shake incessantly for hours until they feel assured it’s dead. He rips out every single beat of his tune and makes sure that none of the music is given anything less than his all.

So you can imagine that watching him within the confines of the ICA’s theatre was a real treat. You could see the beads of sweat falling from his brow, marvel at his frantic footwork and see the creases in his brow when he pulled one of those faces that only Jack does.  Everyone was enwrapped in his high energy show and enjoyed his unique renditions of Spit at Stars, Learning Lines, Made of Codes and We’ll be Here, amongst others. The warm friendly vibe in the theatre was also down to Jacks’ relaxed chatty attitude that had everyone giggling and involved. He wanted to get explicit written on the iTunes live recording of the gig for example, so we were all told to watch for him to scream  f*** at some point through the gig . He duly did during Got My  Favourites, (at least I think it was that one…) although with all the noise he makes I’m not sure it was enough to do it... He also made humble jokes about himself, thanking Jamie Woon with ‘Wasn’t he amazing? My voice is a cornflake compared to his smooth chocolate.’  Most young men being paid the amount of attention that he is at present would have inflated egos and a little Attitude by now, (in the green room a copy of NME lay one the table with none other than himself on the cover) but Jack doesn’t appear to at all. He was wandering around the in the crowds before and after the gig, he's so friendly and he brought his talented mate Adele along too. Hooray for Jack. My only moan from his whole gig was that it seemed to fly past so quickly.  Somehow we were at the encore of Down Below and  new release,Torn at the Platform before I’d blinked. And it wasn’t as special as his first ICA appearance a couple of months ago. Back then we had people on the stage, bubbles, film cameras and the whole works. But, hey, no need to be getting greedy now is there.

A wonderful surprise to my evening was hearing Jamie Woon for the first time. I will confess, I hadn’t heard of him until last night, so I had no idea what I was expecting. I was truly amazed by the voice and rhythmic beat boxing skills of this young one. As Jack so rightly put it he does have a voice like smooth chocolate and music is clearly in his soul. You can hear it in his voice, yes, (I could hear Michael Jackson and Craig David but it is most certainly his own) but also in his sensitive understanding of rhythm – a natural sensitivity regarding  how and where to put weight to a phrase or a strum of chord. What Jamie does is use a loop machine to slowly build the sound of a fully accompanied song with beats,  strings vocals and effects, and for Spirits, Robots and Waterfont he succeeded brilliantly. Things didn’t keep exactly to time for the last couple of numbers, he managed to pull it all back together by the ends, but perhaps he was using too many loops – he is trying to do a lot with just himself and his machine. I would also like to see Jamie doing some livelier pieces in the future alongside his repertoire of emotive songs in the minor key. With all the talent and skill he has it would be a shame not to explore other genres.. But, overall,  big praise for this newcomer; everyone loved his dulcet, haunting songs.  If you weren’t at the gig you can check him out at one of the OneTaste nights held at The Bedford in Balham, South London on the first Sunday of each month. Sounds good to me.

Next up, The Maccabees!

 Torie Speyer