Jackson Jackson @ The Corner,Melbourne (9/10/08)

Sat 18th Oct, 2008 in Gig Reviews

What can I say? I am a Jackson Jackson fan. Their first album, The Fire is on the Bird, was on high rotation at my place for a good six months, and I always wondered why there wasn’t more hype surrounding the duo. After seeing them for the first time play live at the Corner last Thursday – before a sold-out Friday show – I think all the same things, just more resolutely.

Jackson Jackson is Harry Angus, of Cat Empire fame, and Jan Skubiszeweski, hip hop producer and film composer. On stage however Jackson Jackson is more numerous. Choral quintet the Jackson Jackson 5 add vocal depth and sparkle, while three parts of the Cat Empire conglomerate, Ollie McGill [keys], Ryan Munro [bass and guitar] and Will Hull-Brown [drums] manage to squeeze in as well.

Jackson Jackson is a band of many hats. Their sound flicks from dance to Latin to hip hop to rock. Pop songs begin and become something entirely different – sophisticated jams like enthralling musical essays, and while some excursions border on indulgent, the band always manages to bring the music back into focus.

Harry’s voice is similarly versatile – he soars, he raps, he croons. His voice is employed like an instrument, from the yappy chorus and call-and-response in Grab a Gun to the frenetically repeated “the fire, the fire” from The Fire is on the Bird to the melodious The Future is Past. I find that Jackson Jackson provides a more palatable showcase for his voice than the Cat Empire, giving it more room to move beyond generic conventions.

When band played the opening bars of Eliza the crowd spontaneously responded with a groan of anticipation. What followed was a moodier, more introspective incarnation of the The Fire is on the Bird single, delivered with perhaps a parodic impulse. The entire Jackson Jackson operation is oiled with a sense of irony – from their lyrics about hirsutism, bad dancing and lesbian revolutionaries; to the band’s press; to the pastiche of musical styles that fills their records.

This does not take away from the quality, or sincerity, of Jackson Jackson’s songs. Each is polished and raucous and confident, finished with a soundtrack quality that I like to imagine flows on from Jan’s film experience.

The new single All Alone is a great dance track, while title-track from the new album Tools for Survival has Jan playing guitar, Harry holding forth like a preacher and a backlit Jackson Jackson 5 singing like a gospel choir.

While as a rule I’m not a proponent of the encore, this particular one was terrific. The band kicked off with Intelligent Evolved and Insane before descending into an intense cycle of cracking keytar solos and earnest electronica to big jungle beats. Ollie McGill, on the keytar, put in a stellar performance and came out a crowd favourite.

The bottom line however is that Jackson Jackson – with their high energy performance and clear intention to have a good time – is a perfect party band. I expect to see the Jackson Jackson sideshow bringing it to crowds on the festival circuit all summer, and everyone having a crack at The International Society of Bad Dancers.

CHECK THE PIC FROM THE GIG HERE