The Jim Jones Revue / Honkeyfinger / Electric Youth Revolt

Something told me that The Jim Jones Revue's show at the Waterfront in Norwich was going to be a little on the rock heavy side with the band leading up to the gig proclaiming, "C'mon Norwich-We're coming to blow the Waterfront into the Wensum river tomorrow night!!!" and then the following day "Tonight we detonate a rock n roll explosion in the heart of Norwich."

So, a third time seeing this band who's sound is a cross between a 50's Little Richard/Jerry Lee Lewis boogie band and the power and loud guitars of early 70's garage bands such as MC5 and The Stooges. They have a freshly released 3rd album 'The Savage Heart', which on record sounds great and so I was really anticipating how it would sound live.



Starting with local Diss band Electric Youth Revolt (who really wanted it to be known that they were actually from Norwich!), who've just returned home from a short UK tour and got things going nice and fast for their "homecoming" gig with their brand of garage rock. A smallish appreciative crowd had gathered and the band were certainly loud enough to hold their attention span through their blistering and enthusiastic half hour set which included older songs 'Temper's Getting Short' and 'Warehouse Workers & Factory Girls' along with new single 'Mosquito' which saw the band take a notch up in the quality stakes and had a distinct heavy riff.

The second support were Honkeyfinger – a two-piece who evoked the sound of the early seventies with a bluesy Captain Beefheart meets Tom Waits meets Black Sabbath sort of fuzzed out, distorted to the extreme noise. Truly they were a racket, but were fascinating to watch, although the 'razor blades in mouth' vocals were a bit of test to endure and I didn't catch any words clearly or garner any song titles.

Onto the main event and the 5 members of The Jim Jones Revue came onstage with a barrage of relentless good time rock n roll. Lead singer Jim Jones, swaggered and swayed his mic stand across the stage like a man possessed and really formed a great connection with the mainly middle-aged crowd who were slowly but surely dancing and bopping, more and more so as the set went on. Henri Herbert on piano looked demonic on the keys, whilst guitarist, Rupert Orton with his slick back teddy boy hair look really banged out the riffs. Bassist Gavin Jay displayed the best rock poses money can buy, looking like a lost member of the Ramones with his mop style hairdo and drummer Nick Jones just kept everything together very tightly. Being a bit picky, the vocals were sometimes very low in the mix and the overall sound IMO needed a bigger sound system just to handle it, but those points certainly did not detract from the overall performance.



The band tore through older songs such as 'Burning Down The House', 'Killin' Spree' and 'Cement Mixer' in a ferocious and highly energetic manner. It is a truly bombastic start to a set which leant heavily on the aforementioned new album. There were a few surprises further into the set as they managed to slow things down with the wondrous doo-wop ballad 'Midnight Oceans' and if you are familiar with the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, then you will know what that sound is. The other surprise was the song '7 Times Around The Sun' which didn't feature a single guitar riff and was where Jones' Leader Of The Gang status was reinforced by the repeated call-and-response backing vocals provided by the rest of the band. They finished with a very energetic 5 song encore including old favourite 'Elemental'.

Although The Jim Jones Revue are not the most original band in the world they certainly made a real show of their style and there were lots of smiling faces as I left the venue that night. Oh and by the way The Waterfront remained intact and there were no sign of explosions or a tidal wave in the River Wensum, the only slight damage being my hearing leaving my ears ringing from the loudest gig I've been to in a long, long time.

FUTURE GIGS

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