LIVE REVIEW: The Jungle Giants, Rival Saints, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, 05/08/2025
Photo Credit: Byron Spencer
Coming all the way from Brisbane, Australia we were privileged to watch The Jungle Giants play in such a small intimate venue that is the iconic King Tut’s. The band are well known for putting on a very lively show, playing a good mixture of dance infused indie-rock music and with four albums behind them we were in for a treat tonight.
Scottish band Rival Saints were tonight’s support and they warmed the crowd up nicely with a set of eighties-infused pop tracks. The three-piece band are Mikey Chang, Alex McNutt and Ewan McDonald. For the first couple of songs the vocals were a bit low and could barely be heard over the music but this was soon fixed and it turned into an enjoyable half hour as they worked through a set that included Single Interest, The Death Of The Night and Everybody Knows. 7/10
At 9pm The Jungle Giants took to the stage to rapturous applause and conveniently the upstairs part of the venue was now open so up there we headed to watch the show standing on a wooden bench, the best view in the house! The four-piece band are Sam Hales (vocals), Cesira Aitken (guitar), Andrew Dooris (bass) and Keelan Bijker (drums). It was almost a year to the day that The Jungle Giants played this very venue as the set begins with On Your Way Down from the Quiet Ferocity album. Sam isn’t long into the set and gets the crowd riled up with everyone bouncing from front to back, The Jungle Giants don’t really do standing still gigs and Andrew on the bass is definitely in the mood for a boogie tonight while guitarist Cesira is the definition of coolness. The Hold My Hand Tour began in Australia and New Zealand months ago now, but soon after Sam was involved in a car accident. Thankfully he has now recovered sufficiently to take on the tour duties. The tour mainly focuses on the 2021 album Love Signs with seven from that album showcased, mainly dance influenced tracks but there was also time for a few from the 2017 Quiet Ferocity album. Bad Dream and Used To Be In Love were standouts from the set while January release Hold My Hand gives us a taste of what is to come with the new album and gets the crowd bouncing once again.
Hales certainly knows how to work a crowd, he is almost in amongst them at times and even has a moment sitting down at the barrier watching the other three band members perform. Sam makes no secret of the fact that the bands music is heavily influenced by Two Door Cinema Club, in fact The Jungle Giants have even toured with them in the past. The Love Signs album peaked at number one on the Australian ARIA chart and the crowd response to those tracks pushed the set to fever pitch at times with In Her Eyes and Sending Me Ur Loving sending shivers down our spine, hopefully it was the same for others too! Let’s not forget She’s A Riot from the Learn To Exist album, that was another standout during the night. Personally the only disappointment for us was not getting to hear You’ve Got Something, a personal favourite and the guitar drops during the song are exceptional … oh well maybe next time? The band now move on to play Leeds, Liverpool and Dublin before heading back home for a few festivals, album number five is also on the horizon for 2026 and we can’t wait to see what direction this talented band takes next. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
