Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, The Jazz Cafe sits in the heart of Camden, London’s music hotspot that has nurtured the likes of Amy Winehouse, Blondie, and The Clash. It was initially born from London’s vibrant jazz culture, which was experiencing a somewhat revival in the late 80s and 90s as subgenres like acid jazz and jazz rap emerged in nightclubs across the city. The venue now spotlights a variety of sounds—reflective of Camden’s eclectic music scene and the evolution of British jazz—including soul, electronic, and the synth-infused indie rock of Lucia & the Best Boys. Their fiery debut album, Burning Castles, was released in 2023 after a string of EPs over the past seven years, allowing them to experiment with and refine their alt-pop sound. On their first headline tour in two years, the Scotland-based band reveled in the playfulness and innovation afforded by live shows as they revived older songs, teased new ones, and rearranged current ones, resulting in a brilliantly engaging night last month.
With their infectious vocals and soaring guitar melodies, Lucia & the Best Boys may be criminally underrated, but this allows fans to catch them in a more intimate setting. The standing area of The Jazz Cafe is small enough for every view to be a good view, but the lofty ceiling keeps it feeling spacious—it’s also the perfect height for large, medieval-inspired flags bearing the band’s name to hang onstage, echoing the striking grandeur of Scotland’s castle-studded countryside. Up on the wraparound mezzanine, guests can sit and be wined and dined with a side of live music, looking out onto a shimmering disco ball and buzzing crowd below.
To begin the night, Imogen and the Knife delivered a mesmerizing opening set, performing her orchestral, grungy ballads with unfaltering emotion. Her rich vocals paired beautifully with the live addition of a trumpet and saxophone, infusing each song with a touch of jazz particularly apt for the venue. Like Lucia & the Best Boys, Imogen’s lyrics are thoughtful and raw as she meditates on womanhood, recurring dreams, and her northern heritage. This made her a perfect fit for the crowd, who listened attentively and cheered loudly, quickly filling The Jazz Cafe’s dimly-lit corners in time for the headline performance.
Right from the offset, it was clear that we were in for an excitingly unpredictable night as 2018 single “Summertime,” usually a breezy dose of upbeat indie-pop, was subverted into a pensive, harmonium-driven arrangement led by Lucia Fairfull. As the band often uses lyrical dissonance in their music, this rendition of “Summertime” allowed its melancholic undertones to shine. Throughout the night, Fairfull proved an exemplary frontwoman, brimming with confidence and charm in equal measure—she commanded every inch of the small stage, harmonizing with guitarist Adam Campbell and engaging each corner of the crowd, but was also keen to sit and share some personal insights into the songs and their reworkings. “There’s a lot that we haven’t played in a long time and a lot of things that have evolved that we wanted to try,” she explained, embracing the freedom that comes with going on tour a year and a half after releasing any music.
Midway through the set, a tender, stripped-back rendition of “Haunt You Back” paid homage to an early performance of Burning Castles at Dundonald Castle on the hills of northern Scotland, with lyrics recalling a bittersweet breakup: “Your love’s not enough and it’s not the kind of love I need / I know I’ll be better, I know I’ll be better when you’re not around.” While central London doesn’t quite have the same atmosphere as an imposing medieval castle, the rousing harmonium and steadily pounding drum perfectly captured the haunting essence of those recordings, reverberating across a stunned crowd and elevating the track into a more wistful anthem of acceptance. The band is clearly proud of their Scottish heritage, which seems to be a vessel for their artistic expression as Fairfull confessed: “This is how we played the songs at the castle, and we just wanted to bring it on the tour so that you could get a little glimpse of it.”
Of course, some of the band’s bigger hits remained untweaked—“Burning Castles” and “So Sweet I Could Die” were particularly well-received with their thumping percussion and catchy dark-pop rhythms. Deeper cuts like “City of Angels” and “Good Girls Do Bad Things” from 80s-inspired EP Eternity held their own against unreleased gem “Picking Petals”—with its electrifying chorus and tambourine accompaniment, this gave us an exciting glimpse of what’s to come for Lucia & the Best Boys as they continue to blend candid lyricism with powerful instrumentals that ebb and flow. Closing their set, hit 2020 single “Perfectly Untrue” started with an acoustic twist before launching into its unmistakably catchy guitar melody. “I’ll pretend I’m perfect but it’s perfectly untrue,” Fairfull sang gleefully, wrapping up the night with a resounding message to the audience that authenticity and originality are what count.
From watching Lucia & the Best Boys open for Wolf Alice in 2022 and The Last Dinner Party in 2024, to finally getting to see them headline their own sold-out show, I was thrilled to see their charisma and energy had gone from strength to strength. Incorporating stripped-back versions of their songs, and with an expanded setlist, their performance this time felt even bolder and more dynamic. The evening was also a testament to the unique power of grassroots music venues in London and across the country in enabling artists to experiment with their sound; however, many are currently at risk of closure due to financial insecurity. Independent venues were championed as “the lifeblood of the music industry” by The Last Dinner Party in their acceptance speech at this year’s BRIT Awards: The Jazz Cafe is one such venue, providing a space for connection, community, and creativity, which we all need now more than ever.
