Though Joshua Idehen has been releasing music for upwards of 15 years, he has only achieved relative fame quite recently. Throughout the 2010’s, the British-born Nigerian poet worked with bands such as LV, Sons of Kemet, and The Comet is Coming, floating around the UK jazz scene with underground prestige. However, after a turbulent period during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a subsequent move to Stockholm, the 45-year-old wordsmith began working with Ludvig Parment – also known as the producer Saturday, Monday – combining his poems with uplifting and propulsive dance tracks. Soon after, he achieved viral fame with his poem ‘Mum Does the Washing’, a comically candid roundup of political ideologies. On the release of his latest album – I know you’re hurting, everyone is hurting, everyone is trying, you have got to try – Idehen emphasis a message of radical positivity. In a war-mongering, violent world, he urges his audience to pursue goodness through rhythm. Tonight, he spreads this message to a sold-out and buzzing Electric Bristol.
To the sceptical reader, this may all sound a bit earnest. Yet, Idehen is a disarmingly charming and funny character. On the dot of 9pm, he arrives on stage with a tucked in white shirt, introducing his band as having “the most Swedes and Nigerians on one stage since ABBA”. Proceedings start – on the album and tonight’s show – with ‘You Wanna Dance Or What?’, a minimal dance track that initially gets people moving. The vocal samples are quite reminiscent of The Avalanches’ Since I Left You, combining old school disco with an infectious beat. The poem encapsulates Idehen’s general outlook: “There’s so much darkness in this world / But not in this room / And not between us”. The song is received ecstatically by the crowd, who are packed in all the way back to the bar area.
Soon after we are treated to ‘Don’t Let It Get You Down’, another short and vibrant track that keeps the momentum going. Here, syncopated stabs of piano meet a driving electronic beat, embellished with pristine backing vocals. On the lyric sheet here, Idehen shows a refreshing self-awareness of his boundless positivity: “I don’t care how corny it sounds / You are not alone in this town / I said I don’t care how corny it sounds / You and I are deserving of good things”. His poeticism impressively extends beyond the songs. Even when Idehen is merely addressing the crowd, it sounds like a poem. At one point, he tells the crowd that he “believes in the power of people to make ‘impossible’ yesterday’s news”.
During the set, there are quite a few moments of audience interaction. Just after a peppy rendition of ‘This Is The Place’, Idehen asks the crowd to introduce themselves to each other. He instructs everyone to shake the hands of the people around them, and say to them: ‘you are good’. As a solo spectator amidst a tipsy, lively crowd, this is quite an unexpected prospect. But it does lead to quite a few funny, superbly awkward interactions with my fellow gig-goers. This is especially amongst the more reserved, chin stroking portion of the crowd nearer to the back. Almost immediately after, we are asked to join Idehen in a communal humming session. After these ice-breaking interactions, the audience is noticeably looser, and the dancing is taken up a notch. It also helps in adding a sense of self-awareness to what could be an overly earnest gathering.
Idehen then performs his excellent, incisive poem ‘Mum Does the Washing’. His most outwardly political track, the lyrics list a comprehensive glossary of political ideologies “according to your Mum doing the washing”. It starts with capitalism (“Your Mum does the washing / You pay her a dollar”), and then moves through communism, socialism, and fascism. By the end, Idehen addresses more hot-button topics such as male feminism (“The one time I did the washing / I told everybody I did the washing / I blogged about it, bragged about it/Took a selfie, Insta story/Went on TV, won an Oscar”), white feminism, Zionism, and Americanism. It is a funny, creative, and darkly comic track, helped by Parment’s backing music, a wonderfully creepy ear-worm.
The set slightly falters after the encore. A slightly over-long performance of ‘Learn To Swim, Pt.2’ – from 2023’s Learn To Swim, A Mixtape – mutes the energy in the room. And the final track, a cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a Lifetime’, falls a little flat compared to the rest of the set (though Idehen’s recorded version featuring The Social Singing Choir is excellent).
Overall, however, this was a brilliantly energetic and lively performance from an expert wordsmith. As he tells the crowd before walking off stage, him and Parment will be back in Bristol in November, and I might be taking another look.
Conor Lang
