Jingle, jangle, jumple

Jumple

The shows of local acts tend to be more intimate because they aren’t able to fill stadiums yet, pricing you out to a seat three rows from the back. I discovered JUMPLE randomly, whose members’ outsize personalities match their upbeat East European folk music. Eugene Lantsman, the leader singer is smooth at drawing in crowds and pumping them up, who would be bouncing off the walls if they had even half of his energy. I caught JUMPLE at Lily Lounge, one of the different venues they play at. Since its owner and the band is Russian, a lot of people with the same background turned up.

While you can left out of the loop, the upside to one group dominating is countrymen let their guard down in front of each other so they pull back the curtain on some aspects of their culture. True it’s not hard to come by musicians bearing their souls through acoustic numbers but it’s not everyday some guy belts out Russian folk songs. A Lily employee took the stage when JUMPLE went on break and though the lyrics flew over my head, I felt his passion as if my heartstrings were stretched over the guitar.

I saw some of the audience singing along, whose participation JUMPLE further encourages when they perform by giving a couple of people tambourines. Though they didn’t always shake it on beat, the tambourine’s jingle and jangle is a playful nod at the band name. What was an issue was the drums being too loud. Its sound bounced through the bar with the deadliness of ricocheting bullets but to get annoyed is to forget the point of the band. That is, to have light-hearted fun and not to take everything too seriously. Most people were in great spirits, even if a few might have been dancing because they were too drunk to stand straight.

For a list of their upcoming shows, check out their Facebook page.