Tonight at the Big Chill the Mystery Jets performed what could have been one of the best sets of the day on the Clash Music stage. For those not familiar with their sound (have you been living on mars for the past few years?) they take their musical influences from a mixed bag of classic 60’s style synth pop right through to 80’s new wave. Their first album ‘Making Dens’ quite evidently gives a nod to greats such as Syd Barrett, whilst the second album ‘Twenty One’ is clearly an ode to John Hughes.
With a sardine packed crowd waiting in anticipation to listen to the boys from Eel Pie Island, the Jets kicked off with a number of tracks from their new album Serotonin. The set at this year’s Big Chill featured mostly tracks from this album, as well as ‘Twenty One’ which enabled the crowd to sing along to favourites such as “Young Love’ and the truly amazing ‘Two Doors Down’, whilst also introducing everyone to the new hits in the making. The tracks performed from their latest album have a kind of synth-pop uplifting and energetic vibe, possibly better suited to a more mainstream crowd, but even so very good and well received at the Chill.
Their fans were literally eating out of the palms of the Jets hands during their set on the Clash stage, they couldn’t put a foot wrong. There was lots of singing and crowd surfing from both the crowd and the band and you could tell that they were having just as good a time as their fans. Having received slight criticism after releasing their new album it was clear that the revellers didn’t share this view.
Drummer Kapil delivered an outrageously energetic performance throughout their amazing set., singer and front man Blaine managed to juggle vocals and music playing with flair and style, and all in all the boys truly brought a bit of magic to this year’s Big Chill. Mystery Jets we salute you!
Words by Bee Adamic
