You know there’s something about a band that never had the opportunity to be small. The stranger in front of me in the crowd summed it up nicely when she turned after one song to explain, story “I’ve never heard their music before today and already love everything that they’re doing.” The infectious band in question is Jungle, stuff a new duo based out of the UK that can “bring the heat.”

The group hasn’t even released its first full-length album, discount which drops on July 15 via XL Recordings, and still managed to fill Sinclair after dropping half a dozen singles. This band crosses all boundaries of genres, gender and even instruments. With two core members and anywhere from three to five touring musicians, the five players at Sinclair demonstrated togetherness and clean playing. 

After a short instrumental, the band opened with “The Heat,” best known for its music video featuring choreographed roller-skaters. The interesting combination of high-pitched harmonies from two male and one female singer were instantly an intriguing aspect of a band that already blends pop, hip-hop, R&B and funk. Every member’s playing was practiced and tight, with impressive dynamics between the musicians for such a young band. There was no weakest link, with every member feeding into the wild Jungle beast with flair and skill that’s less obvious in their recorded songs. The whole night I was struck by the group’s endearing confidence for such a budding band.

Jungle closed the night with “Busy Earnin’” after playing most of their released work and a few new tracks.  Let me tell you, I’ve never seen an effective keyboard slide until this moment. Now that’s serious business. During the song both lead vocalists, who go use the aliases “T” and “J,” dropped their instruments to play a brief dueling floor tom solo. 

The band returned for a single song encore,when they repeated “The Heat,” probably as a result of their limited collection. With the sirens, whistles and catchy hook of the song no one in the crowd seemed to mind the recurrence. The supporting musicians seamlessly made snaps and claps a focal point of the music, a common theme for the night. 

Kicking off the night was Beat Connection, a four-piece independent band from Seattle that brought summer inside the venue walls. After careful consideration, I’d definitively describe this group as the soul embodiment of Vacationer meets Jinja Safari with an occasional taste for the ‘80s. If that doesn’t get you interested, the two synth players occasionally did a call and response with each other, always complimenting the other’s playing without drowning out the rest of the band in glittery synth sounds.

Not yet satisfied? You can hear Beat Connection on SoundCloud and check out Jungle’s Facebook for updates on their upcoming album (and hopefully more insane upcoming music videos).