Jackson’s Corner
Look, it’s the reviewer’s duty to bring their own opinion into the review, and these guys aren’t my cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong, they’re talented and enjoyable to watch, but they reminded me too much of Ocean Colour Scene. That’s not to say they’re a copy, it’s just that their sound ain’t my thing. Looking at guys clad all in denim, with bowl cuts does nothing for me. This is hardly groundbreaking stuff, all too much of a sixties revivalist act.
OK, I’m showing you the bad side, and this is not a bad band. They are fun, I enjoyed the set, but they seemed to inspire beauty one moment, and boredom the next.
If you like OCS, you’ll love ‘em. Me, I liked them, but couldn’t find anything to love.
Foot tappingly good.
Ortega
Somebody told me these guys were a bit special, just before they came on.
How to describe the sound…made me think of Jeff Healey rocking out, with a touch of seventies funk thrown in for good measure. I asked a friend if the vocals made him think of Stevie Wonder. He replied ‘Stevie Wonder via JK’. Sounded about right to me. What other pointers can I give you? While playing a track of theirs called ‘Higher’, I thought of ‘Higher Ground’, somewhere between the original Stevie Wonder and the Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s cover. This is funk, soul and rhythm and blues rolled into one. Then another song made me think of Ben Fold’s Five, without the pretension.
Basically, these guys ooze style and the singer has a voice to die for.
Cool. Go See. Now.
Zed
You have to bear with me here, this is my first review, and I’m trying to capture the sound and atmosphere of a band I have seen countless times, and who never fail to blow my mind. I thought about trying to go through the songs one by one, but would that tell you what it’s like to be here? If I told you that the fourth song of the night, ‘Be Who You Wanna Be’, the single that this gig is all about, is the most beautiful song I have ever heard, that it is the theme song for everything that is worth caring about, would you understand? Or that ‘Special’ is the most beautiful love song you have ever heard, until you here ‘La La La’, at least. How about that ‘Magic Tree’ is a freeze frame on the best times you ever had? Then there’s ‘Vain’, all moody, bringing to mind rain soaked nights of regret. Then there’s ‘Ultrastar’ and ‘Go-On’, songs that force your body into dancing like a maniac. ‘Six Days and Six Nights’ is all melancholy and regret. There’s more, but do you understand how these guys sound yet?
I tried to think of pointers for you. Bands with a shared heritage to push you in the right direction. I failed. Their sound belongs to them, not to memories of other acts. I asked other members of the massive to help out. The best we could come up with was Travis on uppers. Or Oasis Luv’d up, and the lazy shit bits surgically removed. I tried Jesus and Mary Chain, meets Suede, meets Stone Roses, then realized I was babbling. They sound like now. A mixture of beautiful, swirling, guitar melodies, thumping drums and base lines, with vocals that switch from jaw dropping beauty to passion filled bellows in the blink of an eye. Any given song could start with melodies to break up to, only to cut into rhythms that kick your ass three feet into the air when they reach the bridge.
Have I captured it? Do you see how special these guys are? Do you understand how much these guys are writing the sound track to your life? Writing rallying calls to life’s dreamers? No? Well go see them for yourselves and see if you can do a better job.
In fact, will someone please review them for me the next time they play, because I did my best to be the professional, sat at the side, taking notes, when all I really wanted to do was to get on the dance floor and dance like a maniac. Which is the only sensible thing to do, at the end of the day.
Jayjay
