After sashaying their debut album around the festival circuit since the summer, this gig in the Olympia is the first solo show in Ireland for the band, Jungle. The venue filled up fast, after All Tvvins performance rumbled to an end. The disco funk purveyors left the crowd in static suspense for what felt like hours, with every light flicker or whiff of a synth drone eyes darted to the stage, where the back-lights illuminated the twin keyboard workstations side by side. Then, the building kick drum heralded the bands entrance, but the Las Vegas lights displaying ”Jungle” announced that they had arrived. The seven-strong collective stomp their way to their places, taking up instruments and stances just in time for a rock solid performance of Julia.

The use of artificial smoke and mysterious back-lighting hints towards the bands spell of carefully observed anonymity last year,where names were withheld and press-shots avoided. Nearly a year on with a self-titled debut under their belts and a spin round the European festival circuit lead singers J and T (Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland) are barefaced and staring the crowd down, well with a thick layer of smoke and an artful shadow, but still.

The conventional live band formation has been thrown out the window, with the drummer and guitarists tucked out of sight in the background, and the two patriarchal keyboards and backing singers center stage. This Jungle baby was born out of childhood friends J and T from West London’s fruitful loins.The founding pair were flanked by uber cool banking singers, who sway and click their fingers to each police siren with a ”ooooh oooooooh”. The backing singers look on at the masses of awkward Irish people struggling to replicate their dance, with a bemused expression.

Dressed in urban London’s finest clobber, Jungle look like they are hosting a party that you were never invited to and won’t be invited back to. Adding so much theater to their performance, every finger click or keyboard button pressed is exaggerated and dramatized to great effect. Rooted in London’s grime scene complete with music videos of trackies dancing in empty factories and grubby car parks, Jungle are cool. Skins series 1-2 cool. So cool even the word ‘’cool’’ seems a bit naff to describe them as. It wasn’t a get-to-know the band by any stretch of the imagination, small talk was left to the odd ”alri Ireland?” and ”I know it’s a Tuesday but let’s shake it off”. Any more might have compromised the cool.

From the first track to the last, Jungle were faithful to their album, the rising synth scales, squealing echoes, falsetto harmonies and scattering of samples, dusted with an incredibly rich vocal set. The band are sounding  every inch of their name, from the heavy drum beats to the swerving vocals. The singles Busy earnin’ and The Heat set the congregation into restless rhythmic dancing. With seven people onstage, visually there is always something to look at, be it a hand being raised or a hip being shaken. Nearing the end of the gig, the band and audiences energy seemed to wane. Though the band managed to ramp it back up with a rawkus Busy Earnin’ followed by the encore of Time. It would be unfair to say that the set was slightly repetitive when the band have only released one album, but thoughts were heading in that direction.

There was a sense of repetition that is hard to get away from, a few tracks swim by without much notice, but this is early days for the band. But that amount of sass and talent can only deliver a worthy follow up album.