All photos by Swathi Srinivasan.
Six months after plans to see my Spotify Top Artist of 2021 in London were foiled by a football injury, I found myself across the pond, in line to see Spacey Jane at last. I was delirious. Just twenty hours before I had awoken in Oxford, and now I found myself in a suburb of Boston at a concert venue I knew intimately from my undergrad—the Brighton Music Hall. The Allston venue was just as I remembered it, down to the audience decked in all-too-familiar Boston gear, ranging from Celtics jerseys and Patriots hats to Harvard tees and Boston University sweats. I was among them, repping my undergrad in an attempt to fit back into the world I once knew.
Amidst the packed crowd, I was reminded of my age and distance from the US indie music scene upon failing to recognize the opener, Joe P. The crowd screamed along to his songs, most notably to ‘Off My Mind’ and ‘Leaves’, as the singer-songwriter remarked excitedly on the audience members who knew his debut album, Emily Can’t Sing. While, at the time, I was not among them, just two months later, one of his songs would be Top 30 on my Spotify. Joe P’s live performance and clever lyricism also extend to his most recent release, titled French Blonde, an EP well worth a listen.
In the lull between performances, my exhausted, jet-lagged self nearly caved. The stage spun as I contemplated my first-ever Red Bull. Then, Spacey Jane took the stage. The roar of the crowd brought a smile to my face, as we watched the band bring effortless Aussie pop to New England. The joy in the room was palpable, encouraged by the smiles and laughs on stage from frontman Caleb Harper, drummer and manager Kieran Lama, bassist Peppa Lane, and guitarist Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu.
The stage filled with energy throughout the night—from Hardman-Le Cornu’s signature hair flips to Lane’s bobbing up and down. Lama met the band’s excitement with steady drums, apt for being the band’s manager, as Harper delivered recording-quality vocals, cracking well-received jokes between songs. Their effortless effervescence rubbed off on even the most exhausted audience members (read: me), as I couldn’t help but smile alongside the audience, dancing throughout the gig, and letting my jetlag wash away.
The fifteen-or-so song set list hopped between the band’s two albums: Sunlight (2020) and Here Comes Everybody (2022). As ‘Weightless’, ‘Skin’, and ‘Good for You’ off their debut album received similar excitement to more recent releases such as ‘Bothers Me’ and ‘Feeding the Family’. The popularity of songs old and new revealed their band’s dedicated fan base, as well as their increasing popularity during and beyond the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The band concluded the night with ‘Lots of Nothing’ and ‘Booster Seat’, joined by the entire audience singing along to the band’s most popular releases. As the room filled with lyrics ‘Well, I felt like a kid, like I could touch my feet / As they hovered above the ground in my booster seat / Oh-oh-oh / Well, it feels like that again’, I was reminded of the first time I heard Spacey Jane. Only a few years ago, I was a stressed finalist, writing dissertations, applying for postgraduate programs, and questioning, well, everything. Two years later, after a rocky move to England, big adjustments in my personal and academic life, and general human angst, I found myself in Oxford feeling ‘like that again’. Yet, just as Spacey Jane had grounded me three years ago, having reminded me that the world was big and beautiful, I was once again at ease listening to the joyous Aussie band. It just so happened that I was standing not too far from the dorm room where I had first heard their music as a confused and anxious college student those years ago.
I smiled to myself as the band reached the end of their set list, watching as Harper looked at the audience in awe. It was a sight, a room largely full of Americans (myself included) reciting lyrics written by a group of friends from more than 10,000 miles away. Even after several months on a global tour, this very moment—a packed venue in a Massachusetts suburb—seemed to surprise the band. It was a charming reminder that Spacey Jane, formed in 2016, was still understanding their global fame. If the band’s releases and performances in 2022 are any indication, there is certainly more to come. Thankfully, with an upcoming performance in London in February 2023, I won’t have to travel across the pond to enjoy them again.
Spacey Jane will be performing in London’s Roundhouse on February 10th, 2023. Tickets can be purchased here.
