Cosmic conscience

THE Cat in the Hat is back, and he's gonna teach the kids the A-Z of soul

THE Cat in the Hat is back, and he's gonna teach the kids the A-Z of soul. Jamiroquai have really hit the groove with their third album, Travelling Without Moving, and Dublin's Point Theatre was packed last night with a Friday night party posse, on a quest for virtual insanity, and ready to welcome the return of the Space Cowboy.

Jason Kay shimmied on stage wearing an unfeasibly large furry titfer, and proceeded to give the kids exactly what they came for classic 1970s grooves with a 1990s social conscience, laced with a dose of acid jazz. Jamiroquai blatantly mainstream, all right, the Simply Red of clubland, but Jason Kay carries it off with such grace and style, you could almost overlook the one dimensional musical delivery.

The recipe has remained standard throughout Jamiroquai's short career just take some standard 1970s progressions, blend in a shuffling beat, stir in some shakatak guitar and top it all off with sweet soul vocals in the vein of Stevie Wonder, Billy Preston and Earth, Wind & Fire. Garnish with some solid brass, and add a dash of didgeridoo for that ethnic feel. When it's all served up in such exuberant fashion, however, it's rather tasty indeed.

Jason played the flamboyant chief with the funny hat, directing the band as they dished out the sounds and the beats, and begging the crowd to fall back when things began to get a bit crushed up front. When You Gonna Learn?, from the first album, was followed by the up to date Cosmic Girl, a Saturday Night Space Fever for young cadets. Use The Force was a funky message from Obi Wan Kenobi, while High Times blew the lid off the rock star lifestyle. Didj player Wallace Buchanan kept things low and rumbling for Didjital Vibrations, but Jason brought it up again for Hollywood Swinging.

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He kept Virtual Insanity till the end, letting the crowd go mental on Jamiroquai's biggest hit to date. For an encore, the band performed an extended jam on Cosmic Girl, a sort of live rem ix which ended the night on a long, languid groove.

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney is an Irish Times journalist