A New Era: Jean Dawson Sells Out The New Parish

Watching Jean Dawson perform is like witnessing a fish swim underwater. 

In the crowd at an intimate Oakland venue I felt both the tumultuous waves starting in the pit and the serenity of seeing a performer move in a way that seems to be only natural for him––it was like watching someone do something they are born to do. There is an energy to Jean Dawson that binds him to the stage, one which pulls him into the spotlight and gives him the space to build momentum with both his band and his audience. In these moments last night as the crowd bounced, I saw passion in a performer that was feeling the rewards which he spent years reaping. 

After LA natives and up-and-coming artist Junior Varsity opened the show, delivering a passionate performance of electric hyper-alternative sounds fused with post-punk drum fills and jazzy bass lines, the crowd stirred. Junior Varsity set the energy high, and the crowd maintained it after their end, as they began chanting “Jean! Jean! Jean!” in anticipation. It became imminent that Jean Dawson had a reputation of pleasing his audience, and this was manifested in every mode of body language seen in those around him. As I passed through the pit, the lit up faces rarely took their eyes off of Jean, and smiles only grew larger when he would play his top songs like “THREE HEADS*” (2022), “Triple Double” (2020), and the single that acted as his breakthrough, “Power Freaks” (2020). Voices screamed louder as he pointed the microphone into the roaring crowd, a type of interaction I rarely see in intimate spaces such as The New Parish. I watched both performer and audience mesh together into a sea of passion and infatuation––there was a symbiotic sharing of energies between Jean and his audience in Oakland. That Tuesday had the faint reminiscence of a holiday and a tinge of effervescence. 

His set consisted of sweat, laughs, and stomping that caused a collective jumping. The riffs which acted as the melody that swayed moving feet and arms met with the bass lines that moved the middle of the audience’s bodies. Melding visuals and lyrical nods to Outkast, The Walkmen, The Smashing Pumpkins, and New Order, Jean Dawson took on a difficult task of telling his story in an utterly contemporary and experimental way. He made it look easy with his performance of songs from both his 2020 release Pixel Bath and the release of his recent LP CHAOS NOW*. His sold out show brought together faces and names, all singing along with a type of music that has yet to be touched on; an experiment that fuses the digital age with the experimental phenomenon that the late 80s and early 90s rock/pop gave the world, creating something entirely new and utterly impossible to label. It’s known that Jean prefers it this way; enigmatic and fluid.

Generally regarding live performances, there is so much to be said about how a crowd interacts with a performer, and the energy within a venue is reflected by this initial interpretation. With Jean, the crowd’s anticipation started when the doors opened at 7pm. I arrived some time after the hour, nearing 7:45pm, and even then the pit was flooded with individuals brought together by their music taste and their shared differences. The room was filled with a range of bobbing heads: teenagers decked in baggy skate gear, young adults clad in Doc Martens, Raf Simmons, Chuck Taylors and stripes, ranging into adults with black hoodies and dark wash denim. Each individual in the crowd knew Jean Dawson, and in their cheers and whistles, it was clear they had a deep history of enjoying his music, too. By the way these individuals remained electric the entire show, there is only one way to describe Jean Dawson when he was on stage: captivating.

It goes without saying that Jean Dawson is an artist that is changing our vision of music in an age ruled by the internet. While still being influenced by the stars of eras before us, his artistry fuses together an experience that not only fuels the music industry with raw authenticity, but also serves as a forerunner for our era of experimentalism.

Article by Leah Johnson

Featured image by Kyle Bouchet