LIVE REVIEW + INTERVIEW // Jive Talk @ Mercury Lounge
“One thing I want people who haven't listened to us, or seen us play, to know is that seeing us is definitely its own experience, apart from our studio sound,” says Oliver Pierce, lead singer of Jive Talk. He continues, assuring me that their upcoming set at Mercury Lounge won’t be “just playing a song and then saying thanks, the next song is called this, and then start playing that.”
This warning hardly encapsulates the performance I witnessed. The band walked out onto the Mercury Lounge stage in black robes and goggles, the Bee Gees as directed by Kubrick. The lights go dark and Jive Talk takes ownership of the room. They remind me of the mysterious band from ‘out of town' in a Disney channel original movie that casts a spell on the senior prom and nothing will ever be the same. The sea of bodies nodding along seem transfixed, I am rapt alongside them.
Jive Talk originally consisted of Oliver, guitarist Isaac Middleton, and bassist Ben Dunn. For three years, these three had a casual collaboration, writing songs by sending files back and forth. In 2018 things got more serious, and the band started meeting up in person to “really crank out some tunes.” Finally, they moved to Nashville, where they met drummer Philip Walker and guitarist Andres Ahogado, and Jive Talk as it currently exists was born.
Why Nashville? Apparently, although it’s best known as a hub for country artists, it also hosts another, more unpredictable, music scene, a community that’s redefining the city’s soundtrack. Oliver explains, “there’s tons of musicians here who are fucking crazy doing crazy shit to a dive bar with twenty people and they put their whole heart and soul into that. That’s been really inspiring and influencing for us.”
This influence is evident in the spooky staging as well as the band’s personas. Oliver is a front man in the truest sense, letting the music move through his body as if he’s possessed by the holy ghost of rhythm, like a fiery minister preaching his groove to the congregation. He describes being on stage as giving him “the freedom to play a heightened version of myself.” It’s an infectious attitude. I felt consumed by the performance, mesmerized by Oliver’s wild movements. When I asked him about what drives his dancing, he explained “it’s just a way for me to take the nerves that I have or the excitement or the energy that I have and channel it into dance or movement or thrashing around or jumping into the crowd.” Out in the audience, I could hardly recognize the person I saw on stage. He had become the song, he was the music personified, his body was its helpless vessel.
Jive Talk made good on Oliver’s pre-show promise to me, offering an experience that went way beyond just a concert. Their performance told a story, but more than that, they entrapped the audience in a sinister space disco, inducing Stockholm syndrome in their willing captives. Even when the lights came on, the crowd remained hypnotized in place for several seconds, as if suspended outside of time. We needed to stop and process what we’d just witnessed — we’d been completely entranced, taken to the stars, and now we somehow had to readjust to humdrum life back on earth.
While I’m excited that, as Oliver assured me, “new music will definitely be aplenty this year,” the band’s real strength comes from their live performances. I think they might be addictive. I’m ready to drop everything — and you should too — to follow Jive Talk on tour. I’m desperate to reenter the rapture and hear how their new music manifests on stage.
If this is a cult, sign me up.
Photos: Hannah Roberts
Keep up with Jive Talk on Instagram and stream on Spotify and Apple Music.
