A kid rushes into the toilets at The Village and gleefully exclaims: “I just met Jamie outside!” as if he’s just witnessed the second coming of Christ on Camden Street. Listening to the excitement in his voice, one thinks of all those fawning articles that compare young Londoner Jamie T to Joe Strummer and Bob Dylan.
Several songs into his set, Jamie introduces a track as being about “a lot of things… and nothing.”
It’s a throwaway, clichéd line, but it goes straight to the heart of the appeal of the 21-year-old.
Those dangerously lazy comparisons linking Jamie with the likes of Dylan and Mike Skinner fall a bit flat tonight, because, really, he’s walking in the footsteps of Billy Bragg. Tracks like ‘Alicia Quays’ and ‘Ike And Tina’ bristle with the kind of bouncy scallywag anger that made Bragg’s voice so unique when he first emerged.
Live, Jamie T is a much punkier prospect than a few quick spins of his debut album Panic Prevention might suggest.
His band stay quite aloof and uninvolved during the set, but Jamie hops around as if his life depended on it. It creates a bizarre dynamic – while the whole band are key to the sound, onstage Jamie is the sole focal point.
‘Down to the Subway’ and ‘Pacemaker’ are early highlights, each exhibiting an interesting transition to the live arena. Maybe it’s the time of year, but it is hard to escape the feeling that Jamie T’s set will translate brilliantly into this summer’s festivals. ‘Sheila’ is a belting sing-along anthem, and even when he dips into his b-sides to pad out the time, Treays never fails to impress with his energy and connection with the audience.
Behind the band, black and white scenes of the “kids of today” (possibly including the young man from the toilets) flash up on a projection screen– it’s hard to tell if this is Jamie’s way of embracing his status as spokesperson of a generation, or if he’s just pointing out that, with this generation, there’s not much to speak for.
Either way, Jamie’s a very impressive performer, whose stage presence hints that he knows his tunes have a real potency. All that, and I didn’t even get to meet him.