Photo: WENN
Dragging your lifeless body from your duvet fortress on a miserable Wednesday night to go and see a man in South London isn't an enthralling prospect, even if that man is Jake Bugg. Fearing for your ability to make sound judgements because of the amount of flu remedy you've consumed can also add a bit of a dampener to pre-gig spirits.
Luckily the thick air of Brixton Academy is a fail-free remedy to clearing one's head, a pungent collision of stale beer and equally stale sweat. You'd be forgiven for expecting a Gallagher-esque crowd at Bugg tonight (and not completely wrong given the mass singalong to 'Champagne Supernova' between acts), however Bugg draws in an eclectic crowd of families, couples and seekers of a good old drunken sway.
Surprisingly tonight is an all-seated affair, with people more than happy to remain in their seats up until Bugg's encore, an impressive cover of Neil Young's 'Hey Hey, My My' and long-awaited favourite 'Lightning Bolt'. Jake Bugg cuts a small figure on a big stage with only a drummer and second guitarist as backup, who disappear halfway through the set anyway for the 19-year-old to do some acoustic numbers, including a flawless 'Country Song'.
Any doubts about Bugg's ability to hold his own on the stage soon evaporate with second song of the night 'I've Seen It All' commanding the audience to listen and to believe the hype. Jake is a man of few words, pausing only occasionally to introduce a song or thank the audience, but his lack of chatter is without a trace of either arrogance or insecurity. Hell, the boy must be doing something right to be the first artist to hop from the BBC Introducing Stage to the Pyramid stage in successive years at Glastonbury, and tonight we see why.
Bugg struts around the stage a master of both his guitar and his wonderfully idiosyncratic voice (which just so happens to be pretty remarkable). Jake is far from apprehensive about testing the water with new songs from forthcoming second album 'Shangri La'. A stand out is 'Storm Passes Away', a rootsy uptempo number in which Bugg tellingly laments 'they keep telling me I'm older than I'm s'posed to be'.
A 19-year-old chancer from Nottingham, Jake Bugg is not. Three sold out nights at Brixton Academy and a set delivered with verve and assurance, tonight Bugg expertly plaited new material, acoustic numbers and fast-established classics from his debut like he'd been doing it for years. Good on him.
