In all honesty, I didn’t expect to review another concert not even a week after I reviewed The Mowgli’s on their “Kids In Love” tour. That all changed about a week and a half ago, when I got an email saying my request to review and photograph a band from London called Jungle had been granted. Excited to see another live show in less than a week’s time, I saw Jungle with special guest Outsides at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland on Monday, April 6, for a dance party I won’t soon forget.

I had heard some about Jungle before the show, but not a ton, so I didn’t really know what to expect from the band’s performance. Jungle began as a project from two childhood friends — vocalist/multi-instrumentalists Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland, known simply as J and T — who decided to release some electronic music they had made. Their music quickly became popular, and Jungle formed as an electronic soul collective of J, T and five other friends who aimed to challenge how electronic music is performed by adding backing vocalists, guitars, and percussion. The band released a self-titled debut album last July, and is currently touring North America.

Not too long ago, Outsides was announced as the opener for Jungle’s Kansas City show. This made me pretty excited, as Outsides is native to Kansas City and I really enjoy the band’s electronic-influenced rock sound. So, I made sure to get to The Midland last night in time to see Outsides play (and made a bunch of cool friends in the process of waiting for the show).

Outsides put on a show in and of itself, with lead vocalist/guitarist Tim Ellis performing with a lot of conviction and still having fun, too. Ellis told the crowd in the middle of the band’s set that Jungle’s show would be amazing (and it was — see below), and also took some time to mention the Royals’ opening day win. A few unreleased songs didn’t stop Outsides’ performance from being enjoyable and engaging, with the band also performing hits like “Pastures” and “Just Curious.” The standout number didn’t occur until the ending, though, when Ellis set down his guitar to sing “It’s Gonna Be Alright,” belting out notes and hugging members of the crowd for a powerful performance.

After a 30-minute intermission, Jungle took the stage. By this point, the sparsely populated crowd for Outsides had grown to a sizeable amount of fans, most of whom, like me, seemed ready to start dancing and not stop until the band’s last note.

When I heard “Smoking Pixels,” the wordless interlude off the band’s album, I was a bit confused. This proved to only be a warm-up for the real deal, with the band quickly stepping into its first single, “Platoon,” as J, T and vocalists Andro Cowperthwaite and Rudi Salmon crooned the song’s familiar “ooh, brother.” After this moment, I knew I was in for a real treat with this show.

Jungle kept the energy from “Platoon” going throughout the next hour, transitioning seamlessly from one song off its debut record into the next (only leaving “Lemonade Lake” off the setlist) and extending the songs’ intros and outros for an even better performance. Cowperthwaite and Salmon showed off some great dance moves, surrounded by smoke and lights to create some mystery about the band’s appearance (as J and T want the music to come to the forefront of the performance). Perhaps Jungle’s biggest feat of all was keeping the crowd, dubbed “brilliant” by the band, dancing throughout the entire set and roaring with applause at every possible instance.

While all of the songs were significantly above par, a few stood out as phenomenal. “Julia,” the band’s current single, entertained with its booming electronic horns section and intriguing lyrics. The live version of “Accelerate” kept the band playing for a few extra minutes than what’s on the studio version, making for another powerful performance. Mellowing down the show for a slower version of “Drops” was a nice touch which transitioned into a fantastically artistic intro into “Busy Earnin’.” J, T and the gang put all they had into “Busy Earnin’,” the band’s last main set song (before an encore performance of “Time”), with T sliding his hands down a keyboard for interesting effect and Salmon belting a great solo during the song’s minutes-long outro.

Needless to say, Jungle’s show was an awesome live experience. I can’t think of another band that quite meshes its art with entertainment in electronic and soul music like Jungle does, and this uniqueness is what made the band’s live show so impressive. If you haven’t heard the band’s music yet, you should definitely listen to “Jungle,” but this won’t do the band as much justice as seeing a live show would. (If anything were to come close, it might be the band’s creatively directed music videos.) After reviewing Jungle live once, I already want to see them again — in the words of the band, “time and time and time and time and time again.”

Jungle setlist: “Smoking Pixels,” “Platoon,” “Julia,” “Crumbler,” “The Heat,” “Accelerate,” “Son of a Gun,” “Lucky I Got What I Want,” “Drops,” Busy Earnin’,” “Time” (encore)