For whatever reasons, and I don’t know what they were, contenders
for the most exhilarating live band to fill my ears and eyes, the glorious Jim
Jones Revue, disbanded a year ago; now Jim’s back in town to show he still really
knock ‘em down.
The set falls into three sections. The first is a clattering
cauldron of percussive voodoo rhythms and guttural chanting to summon the
spirits and stir the soul. Jim leads the mantra "Give Everything, Take
Everything" before the blood curdling debut single 'Boil Yer Blood' mixes up
the medicine with three parts Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and one part a torn-off
half-riff scrap of ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’.
Jones is the master of ceremonies, as always, but he
keeps Gavin Jay on bass from the Revue and the pair are flanked by a Marilyn
Manson lookalike keyboard player and pedal-steel player who lays on the ghoulish
effects. Behind them, sitting in on drums, is the unmistakable bearded figure
of Bad Seed and Grinderman Jim Sclavunos; who fits like a black glove with the
gothic nature of proceedings. My red shirt being a rare splash of colour in the
blackest of seas.
In keeping with the apparent intention to create a new distinct
identity away from Jim’s previous bands (add Thee Hypnotics and Black Moses to
the list), there’s a notable lack of guitar wailing and a slow three song
segment with Jay playing what to my ignoramus mind is a double bass with a bow,
plus Jim singing in a lower, softer register cements this. In a live setting some
of the subtleties of these more cinematic, almost Tom Waits tinged songs, probably get lost and ‘1000 Miles From Sure’ benefits
from listening to the recorded version.
After this interlude, Jay straps his bass on again, bashing
away at his knees like all great bassists, and the pedal-steel makes way for
another guitar. From here on in we’re back on familiar ground, albeit with unfamiliar
songs. No matter, they’re instant adrenaline rushes. Two guitars held out front
and the Righteous Mind are rocking the joint. The two encore songs – one making
me think of a bastardized offspring of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Big Legs, Tight Skirt’
– bring the already smouldering pot of bone crunching gumbo stew to the boil.
