Jack Peñate: Concert Review

Music does not always need to be political, dogmatic or depressing. Jack Peñate seems well up to championing the cause of merry music.

The newly crowned king of alternative indie, vaguely ska-esque new rock seemed delighted to be playing a small venue of our illustrious capital city last Saturday. Of course, with such a ridiculous concept of genre that goes with Peñate's music, the place was packed with fans from all sorts of musical backgrounds. Unfortunately, the under-age drunken teenage girl was the predominant social group to be found.

This strong following makes a direct comment on Peñate's music. By attracting such a large crowd of seemingly musically ignorant children, we could easily perceive that Peñate has had a repertoire of shallow music. His debut album "Matinee" is short and while it does not advance the realms of song writing, it is fun, fresh and highly entertaining. Jack epitomises this attitude in his live act.

While jauntily pouring through his back catalogue of songs, Peñate skips around stage, pulls insane faces and generally, has a lot of fun on stage. Backed up by a competent band, songs like "Torn on the Platform", "Learning Lines" and "Spit at Stars" come to life and entrance the audience with their brisk melodies. The encore of "Second, Minute or Hour" was a wonderfully jovial conclusion to the set.

No boundaries are pushed by Peñate, in his studio work or live act. However, he was highly entertaining and how could I ask for more?

-The English Student