Jade Bird returns to the Marina Stage with a set of old favorites, covers and more

UK singer-songwriter Jade Bird took the Marina Stage all by herself as the fifth act of the 2024 XPoNential Music Festival’s final day. The energetic and eager musician was a returning performer at this year’s fest, having played the same stage in 2021, also as a soloist.

Bird released an EP this April titled Burn The Hard Drive, co-produced by fellow UK creative Mura Masa, however these five songs were nowhere to be found during her XPoNential set. She mostly focused on her self-titled debut album from 2019, beginning the show with “Uh Huh” and “Good At It.” In between tracks, she quickly established herself as a loud, witty personality. “I tend to write about questionable things. This song is about cheating” she explained to the crowd, who ate up her comedic introduction and British humor.

She dug deeper into her catalog for the next two tracks, performing “Punchline” from her 2021 album Different Kinds of Light, and “Something American,” the titular track of her 2017 EP. Next was an unreleased track called “Jet Black,” that sounded notably more rocking than some of her previous songs, which fit more closely into a “singer-songwriter” style with softer vocals.

The crowd at the Marina Stage seemed to be widely accepting of the more sparse, intimate presentation, as almost every act at the festival prior had been a band, with the exception of Shakey Graves on day two. It was extremely helpful that Bird’s excitement and laugh was quite contagious; she compared her cackling to that of a pigeon or a seagull at one point, afraid that she was scaring off the radio listeners.

Jade Bird | photo by Ellen C Miller

In lieu of her “struggle with writing love songs,” she chose to cover “Thirteen” by Big Star, a song she claimed to be “one of the greatest love songs” ever written. It was a beautiful, chilling rendition of the slow song, and a diversion from her feistier originals. It wasn’t her only cover either, as later in the set she would cover one of her idols Stevie Nicks with “Edge of Seventeen.” She also teased another unreleased song titled “Save Your Tears,” and hinted at a new album’s existence.

One motif throughout Bird’s songwriting was a fast-paced, rap-like delivery, which never failed to impress the audience. Most notably, it was featured in the chorus of “I Get No Joy,” which has been a staple track on the WXPN airwaves since its release. Astonished at her own fast pace, Bird pulled out a slower fan favorite “What Am I Here For,” and followed it with the energetic “Love Has All Been Done Before.” The set closed with the poppy kiss-off “Going Gone.”

As mentioned earlier, Jade Bird most definitely has a new album in the works. She will be on tour in the U.S. until late October as well. If you couldn’t make it to XPoNential 2024, make sure to check out her past performances from the 2021 festival, as well as her set from this year’s NON-COMM!