Joyous perfection from a band that’s sure to go far: Gabriels at The Social reviewed

The bigger the next big thing, the smaller the room you want them playing in. You want the people who got inside to be thankful they made it in (not least because the more exclusive the show, the more hysterical the tweets afterwards: ‘You plebs couldn’t get a ticket, but I saw the very future of the planet!’). You want the air so thick with heat and chatter before the band comes on that there is a sense of event before a note has been played. You want everyone there — band and audience alike — to feel they are at the only place that matters, regardless of it being a nondescript Thursday evening.

Gabriels came to London from Los Angeles off the back of one EP, an effusive endorsement from Sir Elton John — to be fair, an effusive endorsement from Sir Elton John is in danger of becoming a basic minimum requirement for any new artist — and a set of confident predictions that they could be the next big thing. That’s ‘the next big thing’ not in the sense that teenagers are going to be streaming them, but that grown-ups might actually shell out real cash for their music. For Gabriels are pitched perfectly at that place where adult meets euphoric.

Gabriels are a trio (expanded to seven for live performance): two producers, fronted by Jacob Lusk, a gospel singer and choir director who brought size in both the metaphorical and literal senses. His voice, and the way he controlled it was transfixing —often keeping the microphone a couple of feet away so he could sing with power yet also give the effect of somehow being in another space. Set a match to him and he’d burn the white flame of charisma.