LIVE REVIEW: JALEN NGONDA LIVE AT THE FORUM
SHOT BY LAUREN BARREY
WRITTEN BY MICAH EDMONDS
Jalen Ngonda has the type of voice that takes seconds to fall in love with. And if seconds is all it takes, anyone in Melbourne who hadn’t heard it prior to his soulful showing at The Forum on Friday night, alongside Melbourne’s own WILSN, had the time of their lives over the hour and a half of his set, among the tightest I’ve seen at the historic venue.
I went to see Ngonda with high expectations, but also with curiosity. When I first heard the title track of Come Around and Love Me, his debut album, I could have sworn it was a vintage discovery. I was delighted to find it was an active singer who not only paid homage to the roots of Motown and Soul sounds in his writing, but also through the very essence of the recording. His material sounds like it’s from a different time, so I was eager to find how the experience would translate to a hi-fi venue.
As I mused on the possibilities, the crowd was warmed up by WILSN, who I was unfamiliar with prior to this show. I am now very familiar with her — there was no other choice. Her powerful vocal register and tight band warmed everyone up in moments with the exact type of soul they’d come to hear. Her second album Bloom was recorded at the same studio as Ngonda’s Come Around, so she may be among the most perfect support slot choices I’ve seen for an international touring act in quite some time.
Multicoloured lights made the most of her smiley stage presence and made the case very quickly that she more than has the chops and the songs to rock a venue the size of the Forum. The late chorus key change in When Will Love Come My Way just about stole the whole night for me, and the track has been on repeat ever since.
By the time Ngonda himself took the stage the whole place was packed out. Although we’d all love to see a soul band from the comfort of a plush armchair with a cocktail in hand, the halls and stairways were choked with grooving couples the whole night. From the opening track Rapture to the encore of the irresistible If You Don’t Want My Love, we were swaying all night long.
In a few recent international acts, and just as many local, I’ve seen a pervasive fear of sounding lesser than recorded material. Backing tracks replacing singular instruments abound for all kinds of bands, to a particular act I saw late last year having no live instrumentation to speak of the whole night. There’a s time and a place for tracks of course, but it seems a callous thing to charge $70 a ticket for. If you’re going to tour down here, why not bring a band to do it properly?
So to hear Ngonda’s band listening to each other and play in lockstep with no electronic or backing assistance, often changing song structures on the fly or extending sections that they were vibing too was all the argument one needed — live music is live. It takes a lot of work and communication, and a tonne of rehearsal, but the drummer, keyboard/ guitar, dedicated percussion section and bassist behind Ngonda had it locked down from top to bottom.
You could hear them listening to each other, the mix made everything crystal clear. I’m always an earplugs supporter, particularly at large venues, but the volume of the show was hitting just the right spot to enjoy without them for once to get the full experience. The golden and sepia-toned lighting captured a perfect nostalgic mood, dipping to a seductive red spotlight for a wonderful solo piano cut.
From the moment he opened his mouth to his final notes, however, Ngonda’s voice was the star of the show. He sits in a high register that cuts right through you into your heart during low-key cuts and just floats on melodies in groovier hits. The power and dynamic was infectious — the clarity of each note helped him soar for the entire night, adding in a gorgeous growl at all the right moment. Switching between guitar and piano duties during the show in addition to singing, perhaps he took a few too many instrumental solos and diminished the effect of his tight songwriting for a few tracks, but for such groovy music we were more than happy to enjoy it.
The highlight of his set for me was a golden-tinged rendition of his sweet, laid back Give Me Another Day. Calling for some audience call-and-receive, the audience sang “Give me… just another day” back to him as the band built to an emotional crescendo. It would have had me pulling a glorious stank face if I wasn’t tearing up instead. Both Just As Long As We’re Together and Please Show Me were bright spots in a strong set too.
By the end of the night people were dancing with strangers, and it’s not a surprise that such a distinctive voice would attract and audience who were singing in beautiful harmonies and runs right along with him. If you weren’t swaying, something was wrong. When he closed his final encore, Ngonda showed no signs of fatigue either, his voice as fresh as it had ever been. Gave me the impressive he could just about do it all again right there.
