Seattle – Recently, South African artist Jeremy Loops performed a buoyant and infectious show at the Columbia City Theater during his Seattle stop on his first headlining American tour.
Loops, who hails from Cape Town, creates a unique sound by blending folk elements with pop, hip-hop, and electronica. Performing with – as his names suggests – loop pedals, he layers each tune with vocals, guitar, harmonica, and sounds from frequent collaborators like saxophonist Jamie Faull and rapper Motheo Moleko. Live, he is an exuberant performer and an affable storyteller, giving background to each song and engaging his audience to create a symbiotic concert-going experience.
Loops bounded on stage to start his set, hopping around while playing his harmonica, the opening of “My Shoes.” Looping the instrument, he then starts beatboxing, and the crowd goes wild.
“Welcome to the show!” he says. “This is my first headline tour in the States, and I’m incredibly stoked to have you all here.”
“It’s my first time in Seattle,” he adds, which elicits major whoops and applause.
“Back home, we play festivals a lot, [and we have to] cram it all into a 45-minute set,” Loops tells the Seattle crowd. “It’s always nice to play our own show, with no time limit – I get to ramble, tell my own stories.”
He gives this exposition to segue into talking about his next song, “Power,” one of the first songs he wrote. After graduation from business school and deciding a career in finance wasn’t for him, Loops decided to pursue music. At the start of his career as a musician, he says he was terrified to get on stage.
“It was getting too intense, I needed to write a power song,” he says. “It’s cool, I’m still traveling with the diary I wrote it in. Five years down, I’m generally not afraid anymore.”
Harmonica and guitar texture the tune as he delivers the chorus/mantra, “You’ve got power/ Now don’t stop your heart showing it,” as the audience sings along.
Next, Loops picks up a toy, seemingly one that children can make noises and musical sounds on. “I stole this from a child,” he laughs. “It’s traveled all around the world – I think that’s pretty noble!”
He expertly crafts loops with this noisemaker to launch into another crowd favorite, “Mission to the Sun (Howlin’),” backed by Faull on saxophone. It’s a bright, positive song, with the catchy chorus: “Wherever you go/ And however you roam/ Just keep your head up high/ And keep howlin’ at the moon/ And the sun,” drawing out the last word with enthusiasm and heart.
Next, Loops and Faull go back and forth between beats and blasts on the sax, a fun “duel” to watch, before switching gears into “Sinner.” The energy is up and the band is ready to party, as after the song Loops requests from the crowd, “Could I get a shot of Jägermeister?” drawing more cheers. It’s a Wednesday night, and hell, this audience has been ready to get down with Loops.
Motheo Moleko comes out to the stage for the freestyle intro to “Down South,” Loops’ lead single in the U.S.
The frontman uses equipment to manipulate his voice higher and lower, create loops, then adds layers with guitar. These electronic elements add a wonderful modern sound without feeling theatrical and overly produced. In fact, this track epitomizes Loops’ global yet familiarly folk sound, and it is certainly one of the highlights in his already stellar performance.
During the song, he notices an audience member playing with the toy he’d placed at the foot of the stage. He then tells an amusing story about the toy getting stolen at another show, and how he had to mobilize his Facebook fans to get the woman who had taken it to deliver it to his hotel room. Then, Loops showily picks up the toy and places it far from the audience’s reach, much to the entertainment of the rest of the crowd.
Moleko is ready for the next track. “This is the anti-love song, and it goes something like this!” he hollers to bring in “Running Away.” The crowd jumps up and down with the performers, and Loops gets them to sing, “Stop running, stop running, stop running” as part of the chorus. With the buildup of energy and musical hype, Loops and his bandmates exit the stage, thanking the crowd.
But the crowd’s not done with him yet.
He comes back out amidst stomping, hollering, and massive applause, shocked yet pleased for the demand of an encore. He introduces the song as “Skinny Blues,” and invites the crowd, “If you know the words, howl along.”
Demonstrating dexterous guitar chops, he begins the bluegrassy intro to the song, a simple yet catchy folk tune the audience enjoys.
Finally, he says, he only has one more song. “I want you to pretend we’ve been in Burning Man for six days!” he amps up the crowd, whose energy is at capacity. Faulls and Moleko have joined again onstage, and the band delivers a fine performance of a track, “See I Wrote It For You,” a love letter of sorts to his fans.
“Five years down, I’m generally not afraid anymore,” Loops had told the crowd earlier in the night. And from his effervescent performance in Seattle, it certainly seems true.
Loops’ debut album Trading Change is out now via YEBO Music, and he is currently on tour through June.
For more information on Jeremy Loops, including tour schedule, visit his website.
Caitlin Peterkin
With degrees in journalism and music, Caitlin’s written for Paste Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and MajoringinMusic.com. She loves cheese, laughing at GIFs of corgis, road trip sing-alongs, and connecting with people over good beer and good music.
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