To say Jai Paul is elusive doesn’t quite begin to get the full point across. From when he was introduced to the blogosphere (remember that?) in 2010 via a world-sweeping demo of “BTSTU,” his promising ascent took a turn when his music was famously stolen and leaked in 2013. Paul’s life crashed down and he retreated from the public until finally releasing the sublime album, Leak 04-13 ( Bait Ones) on XL Recordings in 2019. The album is comprised of those leaked songs — and even sequenced in the way the thief presented them. If you’re here, chances are you’re familiar with at least some form of this story. Now the narrative advances with Paul finally taking these 10 and sometimes 15 year old songs to the live stage for the first time.

Following his on-stage debut at Coachella this past April, Paul announced his first ever headlining tour, a modest eight show run of four appearances in America and four abroad. Everything Ecstatic’s Justin Yee was there to shoot Jai Paul’s first performance at LA’s Mayan Theater on Sept, 26th, and I tried to make sense of it all at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Friday, Sept. 29th — part of the Portola Festival pre and aftershows slate before he played at the fest the next day.

The entire performance sunk me into a nostalgic mind-bender that I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced quite like this before. Because for the last decade, I’ve been listening to these songs at home, usually in solitude. And that’s how it all was made and in a sense, it’s a magnification of how Paul felt when his masterwork was leaked…alone in the world. 

But Paul wasn’t alone at these shows. His illustrious backing band featured his brother A.K. Paul on guitar, drummer Isaac Kizito and another set of siblings in Rocco Palladino on bass and his sister Fabiana on keys and backing vocals (yes, these are the children of the great bassist, Pino Palladino.) Rocco has been making waves lately himself as a key collaborator of Yussef Dayes and Alfa Mist. In short, Paul brought four killers with him.

Hearing songs like “Genevieve” and “Jasmine” come alive in this bigger format accentuated Paul’s pop sensibilities. His high-pitched vocals were tightly honed for pop music, especially when he covered Talk Talk’s “Its My Life.” But it also made me question how he envisioned these songs coming to life a decade ago, and if that was necessarily the same as what we’re hearing on stage now. Therein lies that mindbender: That perhaps these songs weren’t originally made for this specific presentation.

Still, “BTSTU,” nothing short of one of this millennium’s most perfect songs, was sublime. The crowd — with a palpable South Asian contingent among it — was the most hyped for “Str8 Outta Mumbai,” singing along to every word. These songs are all a magical time capsule, and everyone there possessed a unique sense of when it all first grabbed them.

Some of the new arrangements seemed foreign, but the synths were unmistakable. And ultimately, it was clear that Jai Paul is beginning to think towards bigger pop songs. The exciting part is to see what he comes up with next.

Check out our full gallery (from a set lit only with floor lights) below: