Between Queen’s Night and another Ajax championship, this Sunday night was full of people in bars partying hard for the long weekend, however James and I chose to hit up the Melkweg to see some (more) live music. This was also my 4th gig in 5 days and sometimes on the end of that sort of run of gigs you don’t enjoy the shows as much as you might if you have been starved for a few weeks. So I crossed my fingers and waited with baited breath for the arrival of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (JSBE).
I do own a couple of albums of JSBE, but do I play them? Not really. What you can tell from listening to them is that they bring a lot of energy to their songs, well at least enough to believe in rock and roll again.
The venue proceeded to fill slowly and the support band from Switzerland “Mama Rosin” put on a great show, their band was filled with big hair, accordions and some very rock-solid rock/ pop tunes.
By the time JSBE took the stage the crowd was packed and the beer was flowing nicely. When the three piece band took to the stage there was a cool vibe across the venue and the band members clearly love playing together and enjoy rocking out, and they did it so well. They also had one dodgy moustache, more than a couple of long side burns, and some god damn leather pants, yes indeed, I said LEATHER pants!
I sure as shit didn’t know any of the songs, other than the fact that they were playing old school rock and roll based blues. During the show all time seemed to stand still, (as it tends to do at a good gig) and before I knew it they were into the encore.
The bands passion was second to none, and I question if there is anyone on our upcoming concert line-up over the next few months that might rival Jon’s stage presence? Maybe Jack White, I guess only time will tell.
So, if I had a part of the evening that I was disappointed with, it was that the lighting show consisted of far too many black lights. And whilst this allowed the band to look younger than they actually are, it did make it very difficult to get a good look at the band members and it also made taking a good photo freaken impossible. That being said, I was there to see the band, and I suppose I actually would now just have to absorb and enjoy the music and that I did.
Jon struck more rock poses then I have seen in a long while, and most of the songs ended with Jon yelling “BLUES EXPLOSION” and whilst that could have got annoying here it seemed to fit right in.
JSBE rocked out with their cocks out (not literally) and I loved every bit of it. I walked away in a pure level of bliss and with a belief as well as hope that I am able to see something like that again soon. At the end of the night, I loved that I can still see bands that give me hope that true rock and roll still exists.
JV
Video's from the show:
No comments:
Post a Comment