Bonobo – The Warehouse Project

Written by Jake Sayer.

Last night we had the pleasure of seeing Ninja Tune’s superstar and frontman, Bonobo, live at The Warehouse Project on one of the final nights of his vast North Borders Tour. Whilst standing in the incredibly hot, sweaty and crowded red brick hall of the Warehouse Project, we began to think… really? Is it worth being crushed and bumped into every two minutes? We can confirm it was. (Apart from when a guy spilt his beer on us. You’re still a dick.)

Opening his hour and a half set with the familiar chimes of ‘Cirrus’, we immediately knew we were in for a treat. The atmosphere was incredible. At SupaJam, we’re big fans of Black Sands, so we were a bit anxious he wouldn’t play many songs from that considering the tour was promoting his latest album. However, being the musical genius he is, he seamlessly mixed tracks from Black Sands into those from his latest album, The North Borders, and even from his upcoming EP, Flashlight. He even treated us to a few altered and extended editions of certain songs. What a nice guy, eh?

A highlight of the night was when his live band started playing ‘Prelude’, which any true fan knows, leads into his most loved track, ‘Kiara’. Once the iconic thumpy bass kicked in the crowd went mental whilst yellow light beams streamed around the room in an impressive light display. The contrast between the rawness of the classical instruments in ‘Prelude’ which give off that sense of the Orient to the very modern and bass driven ‘Kiara’ always blows us away. A close contender to that was during ‘El Toro’, when the drummer and saxophonist each gave an impressive solo showing Bonobo was not the only talented musician there that evening.

Playing other fan favourites such as ‘Ten Tigers’, ‘Kong’ and ‘Stay The Same’ made us very happy. The acoustics of the venue were spot on, causing the bass to go straight through us, and resonate around the room giving it the quality it deserves. In summary – it was an incredible night and we weren’t disappointed. For those of you who haven’t heard of him, we suggest you do pretty damn quick. You’re missing out!

Bonobo’s EP, Flashlight, is released on 01/12/14 – make sure to listen!