The Jim Jones Revue – at The Tunnels – Aberdeen, UK

First thing I note about these guys is that they look great, just as a rock ‘n’ roll band should. Long limbs encased in skinny black suits and Chelsea boots, the hair is a mix of slicked back DA’s and grown-out Stones cuts of the most synthetic black you can imagine, polished guitars low-slung and their trademark electric piano set somewhere around knee height! There’s a quick hello then they slam into the first number like a freight-train hitting a wall and at once, the stage is a blur of activity and I don’t know where to look first.

What the Jim Jones Revue do isn’t anything new. It isn’t anything particularly clever or groundbreaking or pushing out at the boundaries in any way. No, what the Jim Jones Revue do is take good time fifties-style rock ‘n’ roll, the beating heart at the centre of ALL contemporary music since then, and drag it into the 21st Century kicking and screaming, then shove it right into your face shouting “Remember this?”. They play like men possessed with everything turned up to 11. They’re showmen too. No inch of the stage is uncovered as they shimmy and shake, crouch and leap, pout and preen their way through the set. The piano player must have thighs of steel as he maintains something that resembles a limbo position throughout the set, one leg pumping out the time, his hands a blur as they pound up and down his keyboard. Jones himself is a magnetic front-man, sometimes cajoling, sometimes piss-taking as he teeters on the very edge of the stage forcing the crowd into participation.

It’s a strange crowd though. Rapturous cheering and applause after each song but nobody is moving much at all. However, it’s the piss poor attempt that meets Jones’ best efforts to get a call and response session going during one song that is the most cringe-inducing. I dunno whether it was a Sunday hangover, or the thought of work in the morning that made everyone so subdued but it was really slim pickings that I think the band neither expected nor deserved.

Unperturbed though, they tear on through the set, laying waste to most of the tracks from their self titled album from last year An untitled new song is aired and it sounds pretty damn decent. . The 100mph pace is only slackened for the sleazy bump & grind of Cement Mixer. These guys are so unbelievably tight as they scurry around the stage, never dropping a note, making it look so effortless and cool. Even their roadie never stops moving from start to finish, bopping away whenever he’s not retuning guitars or adjusting cymbal stands. All too soon though, time is called and we reach the last song. The DJ starts up right away so we know there is to be no encore tonight. To be honest, going by how drained Mr Jones looked as he collapsed into a chair by their merch stall, I think we’d have been pushing our luck.

So…..to summarize…..the best live rock ‘n’ roll band in the country right now? I dunno, but the wide grins and animated conversation in the car on the way home would hint at it so they must be pretty damn close. They’re the Jim Jones Revue – catch ‘em while they’re hot!
 

Review by: New York Johnny

Photos by: -Dod M.-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent

 

More photos of the event can be seen HERE

 
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