The Kids Are Gonna Be Alright: Saturday Night With Jazmin Bean

Photo by Sophie Parrish

By Nathan Hilyard

As raccoon-dyed hair and frilly-lace skirts shuffled around the dancefloor at the Royale this past Saturday, a sense of excitement grew and grew. I’d been a fan of Jazmin Bean since the release of their 2020 smash single “Worldwide Torture.” Since then, their sound has softened and smoothed out into the tamer, yet still biting pop-rock singles of their latest album, Traumatic Livelihood. 

Pleasure Coffin opened up the night with a set of loud noise. As their Spotify bio proudly states: “Screaming is good for you,” which they vehemently proved throughout the set, at one point even asking the audience to join in and give our loudest scream. Floating around the stage in a ghostly tattered dress and hair teased so intensely it was basically just pissed off, they urged the crowd to shout,wiggle, and scream over the pulsing beats blasting from a laptop cleverly disguised as a coffin. Premiering some new music and energizing the crowd with an infectious excitement, Pleasure Coffin warmed things up wonderfully for Jazmin Bean to follow. 

Photo by Sophie Parrish

Amidst a firestorm of discourse on concert etiquette, I didn’t know what to expect out of Jazmin’s audience. They drew a solid, young, and very excitable crowd. As someone who came to their music as a teen, it was quite beautiful to see so many young teens (presumably also young queer teens) flocking to an artist who is so unabashedly strange. And though there was some hollering and figurine throwing onto stage, it was undoubtedly some of the most passionate fans I’ve been in the midst of in a while. 

By the time Jazmin took the stage, the crowd practically entered anaphylactic shock. Well rehearsed screams bounced from wall to wall as Bean began “Piggie” and “It’s Not My Fault, It’s Yours.” With the whole band dressed in pastel dresses and Jazmin themself rocking their signature makeup and perfect mauve hair color, the performers all leaned into the juxtaposition of good ol’ subversive subcultures: delicate meets harsh, punk meets pop, glamor to horror, trauma to joy. 

Photo by Sophie Parrish

Jazmin began the set running through the hits from their newest record as the crowd chanted along every word to “Shit Show” and “Traumatic Livelihood.” Much of Bean’s work revolves around themes of trauma and queerness, and there was something beautiful about hearing lines like “I can get over anything in the fucking world / I still can’t figure out if I’m a boy or a girl” shouted back at Jazmin by a crowd of young queer teens. The songs rocked and wobbled through their pop rock scaffolding, eventually giving way to Jazmin’s earlier, sludgier hits, “Hello Kitty” and “Yandere.” Here, Jazmin really dug in their heels with warped Hello Kitty theme songs shattering into shuddering guitar riffs, then just as quickly to breakneck dance thumps. “I can teach you how to be just like me!” they cried, as bass fit for any metalhead rattled the building’s foundations. 

By the final few songs the crowd had grown quite restless, keeping up the energy up until someone fainted during “Bitch With The Gun.” The room goes silent as water bottles were dispersed and someone comically screams, “Jazmin are you okay?” Instead of responding, Jazmin waited out the crisis before jumping into the final lap of the set, ending things off with the crowd favorite “Saccharine.” Right from the deep opening piano line, the energy returned just like it’d never left, Jazmin moaning into the mic, “I need to hate you / Before it's too late / Before I crave you / So please go away,” tapping into the artificially sweet sound of the song’s namesake, and sending the audience buzzing back out to Tremont street. 

Photos by Sophie Parrish