Jain w/ Two Feet at 7th St Entry, Minneapolis (31 Mar 2017)

Tour Dates

Zut alors! Jain is c’est magnifique!

After winning the French Victoires de la Musique Female Artist and Music Video of the Year, Toulouse, France native and world pop singer-songwriter Jain has embarked on a North American headlining tour that included a sold-out appearance at the 7^th Street Entry, as her first concert appearance in the upper Midwest. 

New York City producer Two Feet (aka Bill Dess, w/bandmate Huff) opened the evening with a brief twenty-five minute set in support of his recent debut EP First Steps (Majestic Casual Records), sounding heavy on the low end with electro blues guitar riffs, slowly building songs, and hushed vocals. 

Most often compared to Chet Faker, his songs seem to purposely wander a bit more, effortlessly taking their time to percolate such as on ‘Her Life’ and Dess seemed personable and humble between songs, mentioning he was working in a bodega in Harlem just ten months ago, so was very excited to be out on his first tour. 

A slowed, throbbing and bluesy cover of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ had the crowd clapping along and ‘Go F**k Yourself’, the song he uploaded online that first garnered attention, closed their time onstage, but more new music is due soon and Dess promised he’d be returning in the fall.

The stage of the 7^th St Entry was then almost cleared, save a couple of mic stands and a sampling console before lights again dimmed and Jain emerged for her seventy-minute set. 

She may be a new artist to us, having spent time growing up in Dubai, Congo, and Abu Dhabi (all of which helped formed her worldly sound), but she has been active for almost ten years and debut album Zanaka (Spookland/RCA Records) initially came out in late 2015.  The album title means “child” in the language of Madagascar and is a tribute to her mother who is of Franco-Malagasy origin, and has been slowly bubbling stateside, to gain increasingly more buzz and acclaim. 

From beginning song, ‘Hob’ she was harmonizing with herself, looping her own vocals over each other and dropping addictive beat samples, that had the crowd moving from early on.  At the young age of 25 and prowling the stage solo, she was amazingly adept at holding the crowd’s attention, making them jump, sing, and wave hands on cue, and looked entirely comfortable, performing in a black and white scooped neck dress that she wears on the album cover. 

“Are you ready to dance?!” she said, introducing herself after the first song, getting the crowd clapping loudly during ‘Mr. Johnson’ and jumping during ‘Son of a Sun’. Tempo would slow a few times for slower songs as she traded pre-programmed samples for acoustic workings on an artwork-laden guitar with some volume seeping in from the act on the mainroom stage next door, but all eyes here were affixed on the French singer. 

The reggae flavored ‘Lil Mama’ was inspired by Jamaica, the only track she recorded on the album outside of France and new song ‘Paris’ was inspired by that city’s coming together after the terrorist attacks at Bataclan last fall, with Jain behind her console, arm outstretched to the ceiling showing the peace sign.

Hit songs ‘Come’ and ‘Mekeba’ were done back-to-back with the audience getting involved as she sampled their voices and had everyone shouting “ooh, wee!” on command over an Arab sounding backbeat.

Groans then followed as she said she only had one last song left “I only have one album, ten songs” before ‘So Peaceful’, but fans were extra thrilled when she returned for a three-song encore.  ‘Soldier’ was “a song about love…that’s my thing” performed for only the third time, and inspired by the recent event at the nightclub in Orlando.

‘Dynabeat’ purposely had a simpler ‘90s dance groove about it, and after asking “are you tired?” (to an obvious response of “no”) she asked politely to play ‘Makeba’ again, “this time, we’ll go crazy!” she promised, cueing up the beat with the audience singing “ooh wee” again, without needing any prompt. 

In ancient India, the Jainism religion teaches that the way to an ideal life is to achieve liberation of the soul.  In 2017 on one night in Minneapolis, that liberation of the soul was achieved for seventy minutes by dancing and singing along with the blissful Jain.  Très Bien!