Coolness personified – Jungle deliver one of the smoothest sets Castlefield Bowl has ever seen

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Jungle Castlefield Bowl gig review Manchester

We enjoyed another night at Castlefield Bowl on Thursday evening and Sounds of the City 2024 continues to impress, as the almighty Jungle took to the stage for one of the smoothest all-round performances we’ve seen in a long time.

The modern dance icons have been flying the flag for the disco renaissance over the past decade and, pound for pound, have become one of Britain’s very best live acts.

After all, they did just headline the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury barely a fortnight ago and after a fair few people already dubbed their favourite set, we already knew they were going to smash Sounds of the City as well.

We just didn’t expect it to look so effortless.

The coolest customers within a 20-mile radius, Jungle did have an opening DJ set to help warm the crowd up a little but, to be honest, it’s not like they needed it. The Bowl was read.

From the moment we heard that instantly recognisable and ever-so-unique synthy and almost kazoo-ey intro to ‘Busy Earnin”, the funk was very much in full swing and it quickly became apparent that those in attendance were going to dance all night long until the very last note. And that’s exactly what they did.

That might sound pretty standard for a gig, but to actually get that many people properly grooving non-stop for more than two hours on a muggy Thursday night in Manchester, when most people are still knackered from the celebrations from the footy, is quite the statement.

And we’re not just talking casual two-stepping: one of the things that we loved the most about this show was how many people fully threw themselves into the pure disco of it all. Us Mancs can dance, trust us; we spotted Aljaž from Strictly in the crowd and he looked impressed too.

Pretty sure we saw a 10 scorecard go up and one point, hard to say…

Jungle got a very warm welcome as they walked out into Castlefield Bowl (Credit: The Manc Audio)

But seriously though, the set was bop after bop, be it long-standing favourites ‘Time’, ‘The Heat’, ‘Heavy California’ and ‘Happy Man’, or other radio hits like ‘Romeo’, ‘Keep Moving’ and, of course, Volcano bangers such as ‘Us Against the World’ and ‘Candle Flame’.

And yes, we did get to see a few people pull out the ‘Back on 74’ dance and yes, it was wonderful.

Honestly, the list goes on and on when it comes to these lot and one of the highest compliments we can pay the dance music collective is that they also managed to bring some of those album tracks that we’ve never been as fussed about to life on the stage in a way that we now can’t get them out of our heads.

If that isn’t the hallmark of a good live band then when we don’t know what it is. We also don’t think you’ll find many live acts where the whole team and touring crew of musicians feel just as big a part of the core group as its frontmen.

The main duo might be the geniuses that are Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland but where they excel is in spotlighting all of these various individual performers in moments and celebrating the ensemble – something that has always been at the heart of dance music as a genre.

Petition to make orange the official colour of Jungle and all good disco music? Just feels right, doesn’t it?

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We might not have been able to get tickets for Glasto (literally the one act we would have been fighting through the crowds to see) but, for now, we’ll happily relish having seen Jungle on our home turf and simply watching as they turned Castlefield Bowl into a dancefloor.

Sounds of the City 2024 really has been dynamite so far – you only have to read our review of Avril Lavigne’s Manchester gig or look back at the scenes for Fatboy Slim to see that – and it’s not over yet.

With the Manics and Suede, as well as Hacienda Classical still set to play this weekend, we’ve got a couple more days to sign off this year’s festival in the best style possible.

Enjoy it while you can, people.

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Featured Images — The Manc Group