LIVE: DNCE - O2 Academy Islington, London 19.08.16

To many, a Jonas brother will mean nothing, but to the majority of the sold-out crowd at Islington Academy tonight (the smallest of all the London O2 venues, with no screens other than the hundreds of phones held aloft, recording songs in a quality that will never better it live and will rarely be watched back for this very reason) it will mean everything. The Disney channel band sold millions, like a trio of Biebers, wearing their purity rings with pride as Britney began pushing out littluns. But while many of the fans have remained, Joe Jonas has returned with a new band, and with it a new sound.

DNCE’s single ‘Cake By The Ocean’ became one of this summer’s cross-genre songs, borrowing the funk of Ronson (Mark, not Mick) with a hint of the unapologetic anthem writing skills of Adam Levine, and it’s a sound that sticks throughout the evening. ‘Toothbrush’ and ‘Jinx’ (featuring a duck call intro, interestingly) are equally upbeat, but as much as tonight is a showcase of their own sound, the fact there’s only one EP to go from means it inevitably becomes a showcase of the sounds that influence them.

‘Roxanne’, ‘No Scrubs’ and ‘Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine’ are all mashed up somewhere or other, while the 2016 standard Prince cover (in this case ‘Kiss’) is included, all of which perhaps serve as proof that these are a real band, influenced by credible artists. (The Game Of Thrones theme as they enter is no doubt a premeditated decision highlighting how they’re no longer “House of Mouse” material, though they draw the line at on-stage sex, incest – for there’s only one Jonas brother – or murder.) The band members do have credible CVs though, with South Korean guitarist JinJoo Lee playing for Charli XCX and Cee Lo Green, and bass player Cole Whittle (like The Chillis’ Flea with the bounce of an actual flea) a former member of Semi Precious Weapons.

Shaking off preconceptions isn’t easy (just ask a Gigslut…), but there’s clearly funk flowing through the band, and if Hannah Montana can record a Beatles’ cover album with The Flaming Lips who’s to say a tween virgin role model can’t become a James Brown-style sex machine?