Enigmatic U.K. artist Jai Paul made his long-awaited live debut at Coachella over the weekend, and the experience must have gone well, as Paul has now added four concerts to his schedule.
The artist will play April 25 at the Knockdown Center in Queens, N.Y., and the following night at nearby Brooklyn Steel. He will return to the U.K. for a May 9-10 run at London’s Outernet. Tickets are only being made available by a lottery on Paul’s website, with a limit of two per person.
In 2007, Paul released his debut single, “BTSTU,” on MySpace. It was re-released four years later by XL Recordings and was prominently sampled in Drake’s “Dreams Money Can Buy” and Beyoncé’s “End of Time.” A full-length album attributed to Paul, Bait Ones, mysteriously appeared on Bandcamp in 2013 but was quickly revealed to be the result of an unauthorized leak. It was officially released as a name-your-own-price download on Paul’s website in 2019 and on vinyl for the first time last week.
At Coachella, Paul was backed by a live band featuring his brother A.K. on guitar, legendary bassist Pino Palladino’s adult children Fabiana (keyboards) and Rocco (bass), and drummer Isaac Kizito. The set featured several tracks from Bait Ones, the 2019 single “Do You Love Her Now / He,” and a new cut, “So Long.”
