jasmine.4.t has had an excellent run over the past couple of year. The singer-songwriter formed a friendship with boygenius' Lucy Dacus after opening for her at her Bristol show in 2016. A friendship which has resulted in more appearances with Dacus across the UK, a position as the first British signee on Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory Records, as well as an album dotted with boygenius production credits.
Since the release of You Are the Morning at the start of this year, jasmine.4.t has received support from BBC Radio 6 Music, appearing at Manchester's YES Pink Room as one of the headliners of their annual festival and more recently being named one of their artists of the year. Following a busy summer involving appearances at festivals as big as Reading and Leeds, jasmine.4.t embarked on a tour of the world which concluded on a cold November night in Manchester bringing an end to the most significant year in her career thus far.
First up for the night was multi-instrumentalist Rubie, who performed a genre-blending set alone on stage, going between synth and guitar and combining both with her distinctive vocal style. Pem came next, starting her first song with nothing but a keyboard to accompany her soft, haunting tremolo before her cellist came in layering plucks and bows throughout. The rich tones of Pem’s vibrato vocals were prominent from the start of her set, and it is clear to see she is an extraordinary and unusual artist in both style and sound. Whilst her voice shook at times, she was able to stay in control using it to highlight the gut-wrenching lyrics that made her such a well-chosen opener for jasmine.4.t.
Midway through the set, Pem informed the crowd that her band were playing as “a very unrehearsed three-piece” in the absence of both the drummer and bassist — this was not a something that had hindered her performance thus far.
We’ve been on tour with jasmine.4.t for her past five shows, I’m sad this is the last one”, Pem stated, leading one audience member to exclaim “what?” to which Pem replied “of the tour, not ever”. This testifies to the attentiveness of a crowd who seemed to hang on to Pem’s every word: silence was only broken throughout her set by rapturous applause at the end of each song, and Pem was able to hold the crowd in a trance throughout the performance.
jasmine.4.t’s own live show was plagued with difficulties from the beginning. After a half-hour delay involving sound-checking on stage, she urged the crowd to “pretend you didn’t see that, and we’ll be back in a second”. The first three songs, ‘Skin on Skin’, ‘Tall Girl’, and ‘Highfield’, are usually highlights during the singer's set however they sounded unsynchronised, and it wasn’t until ‘Breaking in Reverse’ that the band seemed to be able to find their flow. From this song onwards the emotion on Jasmine’s face was more than apparent; it’s refreshing to see an artist with such a clear connection to her music and her audience.
Pausing just as ‘Breaking in Reverse’ came to an end, Jasmine took a second to thank the crowd and explain the delay in her performance. “This is the last show of our world tour, thank you so much for being here at our hometown show. Our ferry was delayed by six hours, that’s why we had to soundcheck in front of you… that was embarrassing, sorry”. She continued to introduce the next three songs, all taken from the YBT Deluxe edition of her debut album, named after and dedicated to her friend Yulia Trot who is currently being held on remand at HMP Bronzefield after she was allegedly involved in disrupting a Bristol weapons factory.
‘Find Ur Ppl’ centres around Jasmine’s early experiences of camaraderie within Manchester's queer community, and on stage she cited Yulia “teaching me how to do my make-up” as one of the formative moments that influenced the song. As part of the tenth anniversary of All Things Go, the North American festival organisers have facilitated a re-release of the track with a feature from 2025 Mercury Prize nominee Jacob Alon. The track will appear on a charity compilation album benefitting The Ally Coalition, founded by Jack Antonoff and his fashion designer sister Rachel which aims to mobilise music fans to fight against discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ youth: the ethos and focus of ‘Find Ur Ppl’ fits perfectly within this.
On record, ‘Find Ur Ppl’ explodes in instrumentation particularly towards the end of the song, and this effect is even better appreciated live. Similarly, ‘I Can’t Believe I Did This Without You’, which features grinding guitar riffs and propulsive percussion, proves that jasmine.4.t can do heavy just as well as slow and solemn.
Following these higher-tempo tracks was ‘I Don’t Think Anyone Else Could Hold the Same Place in My Heart’, which saw lines such as “I’m slipping, I’m really barely holding on, and I don’t see it getting better” bring a return to the devastating lyricism that can be found throughout the majority of jasmine.4.t's discography.
‘Kitchen’ and ‘Roan’ retained the show’s solemnity, but added a lighter touch also seen in ‘You Are the Morning’ — jasmine.4.t's ode to the healing powers of queer friendship. “Travelling around the world as a group of trans people is dangerous, and terrifying and stressful, but you guys make it worth it, so I’d like to dedicate the title track of my album to you”, she stated before beginning the song. Observing the crowd as this track was performed, teary eyes were seen from front to back, testifying to the emotional resonance this song has for many.
Jasmine invited Fern Veh to the stage to fill in for Phoebe Bridgers on ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Disassociation’, but what could have been a beautiful duet ultimately fell flat due to technical difficulties. It quickly became impossible to ignore the guest microphone constantly cutting out, making it a good job that the crowd was able to hear a near-full rendition of the song during Jasmine’s soundcheck. Despite these problems, everything seemed back on track for ‘Elephant’, the euphoric You Are the Morning track which was chosen to close the main portion of the set.
Returning to the stage for an encore, Jasmine delivered a speech on the Labour government’s decision to indefinitely ban the prescription of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria, urging the crowd to action by saying “I think we can take them, I think there’s enough of us”. ‘Woman’ followed as a powerful affirmation of her gender identity, before ‘Did U No’ brought the show to a close.
Bassist Emily Abbott demanded a mosh pit for this song, which could have the components for a form of crowd movement; however, this may have been the wrong audience. This awkward moment was recovered by Jasmine’s entrance into the crowd while Abbott climbed the venue’s speakers, ending the night with a taste of interaction and exhilaration.
jasmine.4.t’s Manchester show wasn’t quite the triumphant homecoming fans were expecting, though it has to be recognised that most of the factors that disrupted it were out of her control. The absence of Phoenix Rousiamanis, the violinist who has appeared with Jasmine at previous shows before, was clearly felt and meant that the songs were not able to reach their full potential both musically and emotionally.
Additionally, after seeing what Jasmine is capable of on stage, it’s disappointing that she was prevented from experiencing the conclusion she deserved, but the smoother-running parts of her performance helped in showing that she is one of the most important artists of recent years, and one of the most significant queer voices around right now.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4amlS1zcZeSWkphaXn3lEq?si=MTMMkjGFS3OnGsx3W1M7nw
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