Editor intro: I was meant to do this review, but WeeG waved his fanboy arms in the air and pretty much demanded to write it. Given he knows the band far better than I do, it made sense. Plus it’s one less job for me to do! Due to the earlier than expected doors time, Gary missed the openers as well – apologies to Textures and Unprocessed.
Two things occurred to me in relation to Jinjer when these UK and Europe dates were announced. Firstly, it would provide a gauge to just where their level of popularity lay at this point in their career. Having caught them previously on festival slots and support slots, it’s always difficult to know how big a draw a band are in their own right. Secondly, it would also provide a gauge in terms of their ability to carry the role of headlining act into these sizes of venues across Europe.
On the first count, all five UK and Ireland dates were highlighting low ticket availability in the week before the shows, and at SWG3 in Glasgow it looked very close to being a sell-out. There can’t have been many tickets left.
Jinjer’s set as a whole had a really strong focus on their 2025 release Duél. This was reflected immediately in the first three songs. Kicking off with the album title track, this is a song with a frantic initial vibe but delivered with laser-focussed technical precision. “Green Serpent” begins with more gentle tones before building in power and intensity and reprising to a more gentle ending. Next up is “Fast Draw”, the fastest and heaviest track from Duél.
One of the highlights for me tonight was the performance of drummer Vlad Ulasevich. At times an extremely subtle and nuanced player, “Fast Draw” represents him at his most blisteringly aggressive with full-on blast beats driving the song.
The next two tracks draw from the 2021 album Wallflowers. First single from that album, “Vortex”, feels like a musical exercise in accelerating thermodynamics that crushes the listener under the weight of its own momentum, whereas “Disclosure” is more groove-laden although in parts equally heavy. One of the most obvious and well-known characteristics of Jinjer’s sound is Tatiana Shmayluk’s ability to shift from clean vocals to deep growls seamlessly. This is striking in “Vortex” not only because at one point in the song she alternates between the two styles on a line-by-line basis but also, during this segment, she absolutely nails some of the nuances in the clean vocals.
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“Tantrum” is another track from Duél. With a frantic start, this develops in complexity with complementing vocal hooks and a frantic middle passage before a more nuanced, gentle ending to the song. This leads to “Teacher, Teacher!” with its opening vocal passage which has an almost rap-like feel. A real mainstay of Jinjer’s set for years, its catchy vocal chorus and soaring vocal lines at the end of the song make it a real highlight of the set.
“Kafka” provides initial levels of nuance and complexity before building to a heavier ending that provides the perfect springboard to launch into “Judgement (& Punishment)” with its stark contrasts between reggae-inspired passages and passages of crushing heaviness. Again, Tatiana’s vocals here cover a massive range not only between growls and clean vocals but also the varying styles of clean singing.
“Hedonist” follows from Duél, flowing like a wine of fine complexity before the band launch into “I Speak Astronomy”. This is the fourth time I’ve seen Jinjer live and of all the songs I wanted to see, this was the one that I hadn’t caught live until this show. With its punching staccato intro – played in God only knows what time signature – and soaring vocal sections, this is such a strong Jinjer track that I’ve no idea why they ever dropped it from the set. The highlight of the song though is its stunning vocal ending that absolutely soars. The energy level is maintained going into “Perennial”, one of Jinjer’s best-known songs that has remained a live standard since the release of the Micro EP in 2019.
The two songs before the final track come from Duél again. Firstly “Someone’s Daughter”, complex, powerful and emotive. Starting gently before building to a powerful conclusion, this leads into “Rogue” which batters the audience into submission with its punchy beats and deep rhythmic patterns.
The set closer is “Pisces”. Jinjer can now lay the claim to be one of those bands who have unwittingly created a signature song that is to some extent atypical of their overall sound. Although in some ways it’s not that atypical. Tatiana’s vocals present that brutal contrast between really gentle cleans and harsh growls. There are progressive elements in structure (Vlad’s ghost note shuffle pattern in the gentler sections echoes “Fool In The Rain” by Zeppelin and “Rosanna” by Toto) although not as dense, complex or intense as their other work. In effect, this is the Jinjer gateway song and is absolutely lapped up by the crowd.
In some ways I was surprised by the choice of “Sit Stay Roll Over” as an encore but in situ it really works – at times frantic, at times complex with soaring vocal hooks, at times driven by blistering blast beats, this took energy levels to a height again and left them there for the crowd to leave on a high.
There were several points I took from Jinjer’s set tonight. Firstly, their confidence in the strength of the songs from Duél. Jinjer played eight tracks from eleven on that album tonight. Secondly was the way the set was really carefully curated to both weave those tracks from Duél through the set as a whole but also to balance the energy of the set and provide maximum impact for songs that all exhibit degrees of complexity, progressiveness and eclecticism. Visually, the lighting and video screens were stunning and helped raise the performance far beyond anything I’ve seen from this band previously. Tonight, Jinjer looked, felt and sounded like a band who had grown into a headlining act of stature.
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Pics by Gavin Lowrey
