I guess I just saw one of Jai Paul’s first live shows ever, which feels unbelievable. The elusive British songwriter/producer has freshly returned from a nearly decade-long hiatus, having performed his first ever live set as a Coachella headliner in April.
It seems incredibly improbable that, of all places, the brand new Palomosa fest would be the place I see this enigmatic artist perform.
Jai Paul is one of the strangest performers I’ve ever seen. Unlike most shows of this level, he’s obviously still getting his sea legs for playing live. That’s not to say that he’s making mistakes (the entire band played flawlessly), but that you can see the joy and the novelty painted all over Paul’s face. With the rain finally, mercifully, gone, it was a beautiful evening to watch Paul glide over his strange, labyrynthian instrumentals with his incredible vocals. Restrained, even delicate, his voice is almost textural at points, mixed way down so that it becomes enmeshed with everything else.
With rock-solid percussion and disco-inspired slap bass, Jai Paul sounds like an oddball blend of Daft Punk and Mk.gee. His compositions are irregular and hard to predict, and yet they glide right by like fireflies in the night. From time to time, Paul would step up the vocals and deliver a goosebump-inducing high note, never failing to elicit a huge cheer from the crowd.
He played the perfect mix of old and new, covering all of the hits—including “Str8 Outta Mumbai” (2013), which was going so hard that he stopped mid-song and started over. It was a truly gorgeous set, one where every single person, including Paul, seemed delighted to be there. As Jai Paul embarks on his first ever tour later this month, we can only hope this is the beginning of a beautiful new era for one of pop music’s most unsung heroes.
