jasmine.4.t live at the Deaf Institute review – triumph and world-weariness from unbreakable trans singer

Returning to her hometown of Manchester after a breakout year, the Boygenius collaborator was let down by poor acoustics in an understandably tired-feeling performance. Still, she can dig into a thrashing System of a Down cover like the best of ’em.

“It’s not easy to be trans right now,” jasmine.4.t tells a packed hometown crowd in the Deaf Institute on the eve of Pride Month. It’s a statement that the diverse concertgoers surely know to be a vast understatement; in many ways, trans rights are at the same perilous place gay rights were 30 years ago, and the ‘trans debate’ is especially fiercely contested here in the UK, where willfully villainous trans-exclusionary ‘feminists’ like JK Rowling and Kathleen Stock throw fuel on the fire of the so-called culture war. April’s Supreme Court ruling legally declared that jasmine.4.t – who stands centre stage with her long hair and skimpy bikini, singing with her feminine, high-pitched voice – can never be a woman. Following the Cass review, access to mental and physical healthcare for trans people, which can be lifesaving for a group with a frighteningly high suicide rate, is in fact in decline in the UK.

With all that going on, it’s a wonder that Jasmine Cruikshank, whose songs tend towards tender celebrations of trans love rather than righteously embittered rebukes at the powers that be, can perform at all. In fact, she’s fast becoming one of the country’s most high profile trans musicians, thanks in no small part to the indie supergroup Boygenius, who signed Cruikshank to their record label and produced her gorgeous debut album. That’s not to say the road to this triumphant, sell-out homecoming gig was easy – Cruikshank transitioned in 2020 whilst suffering with long Covid, and was subsequently disowned by her family before leaving an abusive marriage. With a few exceptions, you wouldn’t know it from the songs on her debut You Are the Morning, which are bucolic and lovely, enriched by thoughtful guitar picking and vulnerable lyrics about the love that brought Cruikshank back from the brink.

This one-off Manchester show ought to feel like a victory lap, a celebration of Cruikshank’s deserved critical claim and phoenix-like origin story. It’s a sign of the times that it instead feels like only the start of a new battle. Cruikshank recounts how she’d suffered transphobic abuse right outside the Deaf Institute a few hours prior, and needed a heartfelt chat with a bandmate to feel ready once more for the gig. Later, Cruikshank dedicates a song to Yulia Trot, her best friend who remains in prison without trial after allegedly breaking into an Israeli weapons factory in Bristol, in support of Palestine.

The result is a gig of mixed emotions, the joy of Cruikshank’s fine tunes rubbing up against the cold reality of the injustices of the present. There’s a faint feeling that Cruikshank might be understandably exhausted by it all, starting the night with an underpowered rendition of Kitchen. On the record, the track’s rapid-fire folksy chord changes tick away like finely tuned clockwork, but played meekly and too slowly in Manchester, it’s an underwhelming start to the night. You Are the Morning and Breaking in Reverse similarly drag – both pretty enough songs that end up feeling like they might grind to a halt at any moment, the whole rendition a shade too anaesthetised, too world-weary.

It takes country-rock zinger Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation to finally get the crowd moving, with Phoenix Rousiamanis’s violin (the standout musician in an all-trans band) soaring over an earthy three chord romp. It’s a shame a muddy mix means Cruikshank’s scratchy guitar solos don’t soar as much as they ought to. It’s breakout hit Elephant, though, that is currently Cruikshank’s best song by some distance. A slow-burner that boldly repeats a single, aching melody and chord progression for the entire song, on Elephant jasmine.4.t doesn’t just seek to nail the trans experience, but reaches for something more universally heartbreaking. “Look at this, it’s all for you!” Cruikshank belts desperately as the crowd bellows back at her before a piercing guitar solo swoops in to offer those emotions words can’t quite reach. It’s a straightforward, inspired piece of songwriting that cuts through to the soul in Manchester, even despite the continuing mixing issues with Cruikshank’s guitar.

The gig needed a little joy, and it was provided in the encore with the magnificent-looking Bola, a trans friend of Cruikshank’s who was given a small section of the audience area to perform exquisitely self-confident interpretative dance for Woman, which is a powerfully serene statement of Cruikshank’s gender identity. There was an even bigger crowd reaction for a strikingly brutal final rendition of System of a Down’s nu metal classic Toxicity, which sounded so fiercely compelling it even spurred a small mosh pit amongst Cruikshank’s indie folk-loving audience. Her snarling vocal performance was easily her best of the night, and made you wander why she hasn’t made the obvious move towards making politically engaged punk music.

“I can’t tell you how much this means to me,” Cruikshank tells her audience at one point between songs. “When am I waking up?” Her amazement at filling the fairly humble Deaf Institute is a reminder that jasmine.4.t is still a new artist and this is still a new band, and it’s no surprise that sonically her live show remains a little rough around the edges. Still, the seeds of greatness are there – not least in the exceptional Elephant and Guy Fawkes – and the fans moshing away in front of me seem fully aware that this could be the start of a remarkable career (jasmine.4.t already has the considerably bigger venue down the road, Gorilla, booked for November). Tonight had been coloured overarching fatigue at the horrifying state of the world that seemed to seep into Cruikshank’s playing, but as Bola and friends danced the night away to System of a Down, it was a sense of hope and determination that resounded most.