Concert Review: Jadu Heart at The Belasco, Los Angeles, CA!
- Dans Karagannis
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Rating: 5/5
From the moment I heard Jadu Heart's music it tore me up. Shoegaze, experimental, and hypnotic, they've created a soundscape that pulls you into a dissociative and heart clenched portal. Expect to cry; it’s painstakingly beautiful, wrapped in melancholy that feels like longing itself. You’ll listen again and again and again, cry some more, then rinse and repeat.
The band’s inception began as a school project between lead duo Diva Jeffrey and Alex Headford while attending the same university, which then evolved into Jadu Heart. Time fast-forwards: both the band and their romantic relationship grew, a romance that spanned nine years. Their most recent album, POST HEAVEN, released this past April, is the first they’ve made together since their personal breakup. They've shared that writing this album was an intense processing of mutual heartbreak. Through that, they found themselves called back to more of their DIY and experimental roots from when the band first formed, focusing largely on beats while still maintaining that hazy, dream-washed tone.
This past week, Jadu Heart headlined The Belasco in Los Angeles, with local act Abby Sage as the opener. LA showed up for Sage, the venue already packed. Her set carried an ultra-cool, folky-pop orb full of mist-and-moss ambience. It was no surprise to overhear audience members refer to her set as “whimsical,” just in time for the shoegaze entryway to open for Jeffrey and Headford who took the stage.
Live, Jadu Heart were just as electrifying as they were the breath of quiet that lingers after a storm. The setlist was everything and more (and I wanted even more). Songs like "You're Dead", "AUX", "Metal Violets", "Post Romance", "Dead, Again", "Burning Hour", "Cocoon", and "Another Life" pulsed and settled into their sonic realms, vibrantly full of emotion. Jeffrey’s voice was as luminous live as it is on record, playing an integral layer to the band's sound–an entrancing ease that lands with delicacy. Whereas Headford’s guitar, by contrast, added the gritty texture that thrashed. Together, they strike a balance between ethereal and gnarly as if effortless. The crowd was completely wrapped up in it–eyes closed, bodies in sync, floating somewhere between trance and catharsis.
By the end, people went feral, genuinely, in demand for, "One more song! One more song! One more song!" When the band was back on stage for that 'one more song', closing the night out with "I'm A Kid" from their second album, Melt Away.
I could have easily stayed in their world for as long as Jadu Heart would carry us. For now, I'll stick to the recordings and play their music till my eyes run dry of tears, until meeting them live again.