REVIEW & GALLERY: Rum Jungle Makes the Echoplex Feel Like Home

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“No one is watching, let’s just have fun.”

Rum Jungle repeated some version of that sentiment throughout their October 5 show at the Echoplex, and by the end of the night, it felt less like something they were telling the crowd and more like the entire point of the show.

The Australian band didn’t seem particularly concerned with creating distance between themselves and the audience. They joked with the crowd, joked even more with each other, encouraged everyone to dance, and made a Monday night in Los Angeles feel surprisingly intimate.

A lot of that came from simply watching the four of them interact. Between songs, one band member would make a comment and another would immediately build on it, sending the conversation in an entirely different direction. They were constantly laughing at each other, interrupting, adding to jokes, and letting the audience see the dynamic between them rather than switching into a rehearsed version of themselves between songs.

It made you feel like you were getting to know the band at the same time you were watching them perform.

Of course, being Australians in California gave them plenty of material. They leaned heavily into the “West Coast, best coast” comments and regularly poked fun at themselves and the distance they had traveled to be there. The jokes never felt like filler between songs. They became part of what made the night feel so personal.

That looseness carried into the music itself.

Rum Jungle wanted people to move. They repeatedly encouraged the crowd to dance, let go, and actually feel the music rather than worry about how they looked doing it. For a room full of people who could very easily have spent the night standing still and filming from behind their phones, there was something refreshing about being reminded that nobody was paying that much attention anyway.

“No one is watching” could have easily been a throwaway comment. Instead, it became something of an unofficial theme for the night.

The more comfortable the band seemed onstage, the more comfortable the room became with them. Their conversations with the crowd, the constant back-and-forth between band members, and their encouragement to just have fun made the performance feel less polished in the best possible way. Nothing about it felt distant.

And that didn’t end when the set did.

After the show, the members of Rum Jungle headed to the merch booth and stayed to meet fans. After spending the night making a room full of people feel like they were somehow in on the joke, meeting everyone afterward felt fitting.

For a band that had traveled from Australia to play a Monday night in Los Angeles, Rum Jungle managed to make the Echoplex feel a little like their own room for the night, and everyone in the crowd felt invited into it.

Maybe that was because they never asked the audience to take the night too seriously.

Dance. Feel the music. Make a little bit of a fool of yourself.

No one is watching anyway.