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Jake Bugg and the Skins @ Civic Theatre, New Orleans (01/30/14)

Jake Bugg at Civic Theatre Tour Poster ‎photo credit: civicnola.com Setlist There's a Beast and We All Feed It Trouble Town Seen It All Me and You Storm Passes Away Two Fingers Messed Up Kids Ballad of Mr Jones Pine Trees Broken Simple Pleasures Green Man Kingpin Taste It Slumville Sunrise What Doesn't Kill You -- Encore -- A Song About Love Baby, Please Don't Go Lightning Bolt ‎information from setlist.fm Read More Jake Bugg Q Awards-winner and Mercury Prize-nominee, Jake Bugg is currently on tour in America in support of his latest release, Shangri La …

The Skins and Jake Bugg just finished their U.S. tour, stopping by Civic Theatre in New Orleans last week, January 30th.

The Skins

The Skins: I'll be honest but when I first saw this band the stage they looked like they were from the Disney Channel, but not that young. The Brooklyn-based band turned out to not be all that bad. It was kind of jam mixed with VV Brown style. Lead singer Bayli Mckeithan had an awesome voice, but the instrumentation just didn't blend well with her vocals. It will be tough for Bayli to leave her band to pursue a solo career. Two of her band members are her siblings, Reef and Kaya Mckeithan.

Jake Bugg: Great set from the prized star from England at the beautiful newly opened Civic Theater in New Orleans. Mr. Jake Bugg didn't play my two favorite tracks from his debut self titled album, "Slide" and "Simple as This". He played about half his set with songs from his 2013 release Shangri Las. His latest release is a little more heavier rock and roll but and has a bit more twist of country.

The very youthful audience went wild to all his songs and sung along, luckily with more of whisper so there was no competition on who was singing. Jake put on a great show switching from electric to acoustic guitars. The kid is only 19 and is working with Johnny Cash's producer and already has two top 5 albums in the UK charts, so he can do whatever he wants.

Jake Bugg continues his World Tour:

02/15/14 Newcastle City Hall
02/16/14 Newcastle City Hall
02/20/14 Nottingham, UK Capital FM Arena
02/21/14 London, UK Royal Albert Hall
02/22/14 Edinburgh, UK Corn Exchange
02/23/14 Manchester, UK The Ritz
02/27/14 Lifetime Of Peace And Love Award
02/28/14 BBC Radio 6 Music Festival 2014
03/01/14 Manchester, Victoria Warehouse
03/26/14 Mexico Vive Cuervo Salon
03/28/14 Lollapalooza Chile
03/29/14 Lollapalooza Chile
04/01/14 Lollapalooza Argentina
04/05/14 Lollapalooza Brazil
04/06/14 Lollapalooza Brazil
04/10/14 New Zealand Auckland Town
04/17/14 Melbourne, Australia Palace Theatre
04/20/14 Newtown, Australia Enmore Theatre
04/21/14 Bluesfest
04/23/14 Brisbane, Australia The Hi-Fi
04/26/14 Yokohama, Japan Bay Hall
04/28/14 Osaka, Japan Zepp Namba
04/29/14 Nagoya, Japan Diamond Hall
04/30/14 Tokyo, Japan Zepp Tokyo
06/19/14 Firefly Music Festival 2014
06/26/14 Sweden Bravålla Festival 2014
07/12/14 Dublin, Ireland Marlay Park
08/22/14 Reading Festival 2014

Jake Bugg at the Civic Theater, New Orleans (01/30/14)

brody ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ jakebugg.com ♥ theskins.com

Jake Bugg at First Avenue, Minneapolis (01/17/2014)

Jake Bugg Poster Promotional Poster Setlist There's a Beast and We All Feed It Love Like Laughter Trouble Town Seen It All Simple as This Storm Passes Away Two Fingers Messed Up Kids Ballad of Mr. Jones Pine Trees Broken Simple Pleasures Green Man Kingpin Taste It Slumville Sunrise What Doesn't Kill You -- Encore -- A Song About Love My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) Lightning Bolt North American Tour 01/21/14 Vancouver, BC Orpheum 01/22/14 Portland, OR McMenamins 01/23/14 Oakland, CA Fox Theater 01/24/14 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern 01/28/14 Dallas, TX House Of Blues 01/29/14 Houston, TX House Of Blues 01/30/14 New Orleans, LA Civic Theatre 01/31/14 Memphis, TN Minglewood Hall 02/01/14 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium Read More Jake Bugg UK wunderkind Jake Bugg, tickets are already hard-to-find (Minneapolis is long sold out), but any effort to find a ticket should be worth it. … Albert Hammond, Jr. “It’s the best material that I’ve made so far”, a bold statement from Albert Hammond, Jr. regarding his new EP, AHJ (on Strokes bandmate Julian Casablanca’s imprint, Cult Records) …

Q Awards-winner and Mercury Prize-nominee, Jake Bugg is currently on tour in America in support of his latest release, Shangri La (out now on Jake Bugg Records/Virgin EMI). He sold out his First Avenue show in Minneapolis last Friday, January 17th.

Opening up for the British singer were Brooklyn's The Skins and Strokes' guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.

The Skins

You can actually read more about The Skins' show in detail. The Skins consists of three siblings: Bayli, Reef, and Kaya Mckeithan, plus guitarists Daisy Spencer and Russell Chell.

The thing about this band is that they look and sound comfortable on stage, this wasn't amateur hour for them. Pinning down their sound is a little harder than it sounds, because the band mixes in funk, rock, R&B, a little bit of everything.

The band's latest release is a single called "Dead Hands", taken from their forthcoming debut album Show Me Some Skins.

Albert Hammond Jr

When Albert Hammond Jr., took the stage by re-dressing the set with bright red lights and started playing "Holiday", from his solo debut album Yours to Keep, I was instantly reminded of how much I love The Strokes.

Clearly the real talent in the Strokes is with Hammond.

AHJ's Setlist

While most of his set (see setlist photo), sounds much like a missing Strokes album. This is not a bad thing, if you love The Strokes. Tracks included tracks from Hammond's debut album and Como Te Llama, and rounding out the rest were three tracks from his latest EP AHJ ("St. Justice", "Rude Customer", and "Carnal Cruise"). Interestingly enough, he chose to end his set with a cover of the Misfits' "Last Caress".

As expected with a relatively new musician, Jake Bugg balanced between his two albums, the self-titled and his latest, Shangri La. He rarely talk between his songs, and when he does, it was hard to make out what he was saying.

Bugg's Setlist

Most of his set were on the louder/faster side, except for when he played "Pine Trees" and "Broken" as a solo acoustic set. This was when the talkers in the audience was at their worst.

The biggest cheer of the night came was when "Two Fingers" was played, which tells me that this must be the breakout single for Bugg. The other big cheer came out for "Lightning Bolt" (which I believe is Bugg's highest charted song, at #26 on the UK Single Chart).

The highlight of the show for me was during the three-track encore, Bugg played a cover of Neil Young's "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)".

Although Jake Bugg touts The Beatles and Oasis as influences (he certainly has the haircut), his live performance sounds like southern blues. It's a good direction for this young artist, and I'm curious to see how his sound may develop in future albums.

Jake Bugg continues his North American tour until February 1st, then his tour for Shangri La takes him back to the UK, Australia, and eventually Japan.

Jake Bugg at First Avenue, Minneapolis (01/17/2014) photo: John

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ theskins.com ♥ alberthammondjr.com ♥ jakebugg.com

The Skins at First Avenue, Minneapolis (1/17/2014)

The Skins tour poster photo credit: facebook.com Read More Jake Bugg UK wunderkind Jake Bugg, tickets are already hard-to-find (Minneapolis is long sold out), but any effort to find a ticket should be worth it. …

The Skins, a Brooklyn-based 5 piece and the opening act for the Jake Bugg’s North American tour, hit the First Avenue stage January 17th with a boom clack. The sound was instantly recognizable as a soulful, punk flare stemming from classic rock guitar chords and more notably, guitar solos. Whatever happened to guitar solos? I miss those. Hearing them from far away you could tell they had so much talent and technical skill, they play like musical ingénues. Once I secured my spot up close and saw how young they were, the first note I took was, “School of Rock Graduates”. I was right on the money. This was a perfect opening act for 19 year old Jake Bugg, as The Skins range in age from 15-21. Their School of Rock teacher, based on the movie starring Jack Black, quit teaching to be their manager, but watches to make certain they keep up their “homework” while on the road.

They have that Brooklyn hipster look, young and fresh, yet vaguely familiar to folks in my generation with a Beastie Boys-TLC-Pearl Jam, swag. You instantly connect with them. I have yet to see an unknown headliner pull such a large crowd and kept them remarkably hooked.

Each song they played had a different vibe which continued to prove their talent and range as musicians. Their songs would span from pure rock and roll that housed technical guitar licks to a song that had a flirtatious R&B vibe. They merged into a Ramones Style anthem that required audience participation, “HEY”, which was not hard to secure. Then they would play a jazzy little number showcasing the singer’s Adele voice and the guitarist’s technical side. Most notably, when The Skins segued into a Brit-pop song that showcased dueling guitar solos between Daisy Spencer and Russel Chell.

The Skins photo: Libby

At a glance you could see and hear that Spencer has a Jimmy Page inspired way about her playing while Chell has the stylistic features of a young Steve Vai. Bayli McKeithan is the head vocalist and absolutely charms with her powerful range but is not afraid to scream like Roger Daltry (The Who) or Patti Smith for that matter. Her younger sister, Kaya McKeithan, slaps da bass with the skill level of Peter Giles (King Crimson) but with the funk and pizazz of RHCPs own, Flea. The youngest brother and member of The Skins, is drummer, Reef McKeithan. At 15, he plays with the depth and skill of John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) yet brings a notable ?love (The Roots) rhythm which gives The Skins that contemporary Rock and Roll sound this generation has been waiting for.

After the set I ran to the merch booth, hoping for an opportunity to chat with a few of the band members. There is nothing more impressive than talking with passionate, developing, music lovers who share the same admiration of rock, blues, funk, and soul that a wise/old music aficionado does. They shared that after self-releasing their 2012 EP, the group caught the attention of notorious music producer Rick Rubin, and he's been helping develop songs with them at his own Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, CA. Their merchandise was extremely recognizable with t-shirts & stickers designed by Obey Giant’s Shepard Fairey, who offered to design them after catching their breakout performance at SXSW last year. They have recently signed a major label record deal with American Recordings, started by actor Adrian Grenier (Entourage) and are currently working on their next release. I can’t wait to see their evolution as they gain amplified education from being out of the classroom and rocking on the road.

The Skins at First Avenue, Minneapolis (01/17/2014) photo: Vu

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