Jim Jones Revue & Lewis Floyd Henry 02 Academy Birmingham

One man band Lewis Floyd Henry really does look like the most genial of New York buskers – think a down on his luck Hendrix trying to make a buck playing Heavy Trash with a pram mounted amp and a tiny bass drum and cymbal.  If that sounds dodgy, it’s the guitar that saves it all.  Loud, dirty and played with casual abandon.  Lewis is having a party and he really doesn’t seem to care if the audience are with him or not.

In fact most of the audience are.  His brand of fucked up street, punk & blues, gets a deserved good response.  A well chosen support act, worth checking out.  Oh yeah – he talks to the pram as well!

Unless you’ve spent the last 18 months under a rock you’ll know that The Jim Jones Revue have married the maniac piano driven rock ‘n’ roll of Jerry Lee Lewis and the er maniac guitar driven rock ‘n’ roll of the MC5 to magnificent effect on latest album ‘Burning Your House Down’.

For the full Jim Jones Revue effect, of course you have to see them live.  Right from the off you know this band fancy themselves.  And rightly so!  Anyone who comes on to ‘Raw Power’ has to be able to deliver in full and with guitarists circa London Calling era Clash and frontman Jim Jones giving Grinderman a run for the title of ‘sleaziest suit wearer in rock’, they look the part.  But can they cut it?

The answer comes in 2 minutes 30 seconds dead, in the shape of opening number ‘Dishonest John’.  As a statement of intent it doesn’t come much better than this, screaming guitar riffs and falling down the stairs piano hammering compete to demand your full attention.  If this doesn’t give you an immediate adrenalin rush then you’d better get your coat.

Yes it’s clichéd, dumb rock ‘n’ roll, with all the cock rock posing you can handle.  And then more of the same.  But it’s done with such messianic zeal that it works.  It really works.  The twin attack of guitar and demented boogie-woogie piano soon has the band and audience working each other into a sweat as they run through ‘Cement Mixer’, ‘Burning Your House Down’, ‘Shoot First’ and ‘Elemental’.

All that and they have seamlessly brought in a new keyboard player.  With the piano being so fundamental to the band’s sound, it’s a real credit to new boy Henri Herbert that there’s no discernable change to the Jim Jones Revue live onslaught.  Just to prove it the band finished with a devastating version of ‘The Princess & The Frog’ from their debut album.  Still a remarkable song, still a remarkable band.

However, to be absolutely honest (John), this may not have been Jim Jones Revue at their absolute peak.  Being a rescheduled show it felt like it took the band a while to get up a head of steam as they seemed to be battling with a less than perfect onstage sound.  

That quibble aside and despite (or because of?) all the obvious referencing in their music – and along with the usual suspects, Gallon Drunk really ought to get a nod – it’s hard to disagree with the current thinking that right now The Jim Jones Revue are the best balls out rock ‘n’roll band in the country.  Simply unstoppable.

 

 

 

 Go here for live footage from the gig.