Blues Explosion, Salmon @Metro, 29/01/05

Wed 9th Feb, 2005 in Gig Reviews

Crammed into the Metro on this hot January night, it was hard not think about WaveAid on at the SCG at the same time. Powderfinger were starting their set on the same stage, Kim Salmon had played with Nick Cave just hours before (Nick Cave at the cricket ground! Those Goths who missed the irony must have been crying into their capes), and now he was leading his new project, the imaginatively titled Salmon onto the Metro stage.

The spectre of the tsunami disaster loomed large over every aspect of life in the weeks since it happened, and how could it not? So the opportunity to release some guilt in the mosh pit on a balmy summer evening had stuck in my head.

Kim Salmon’s work with The Scientists, The Surrealists and The Beasts of Bourbon is an easy reference point for the Blues Explosion. Never standing still long enough to be pinned down, Salmon presented a weird five guitar and no bass line up that had me conjuring phrases like “epic soundscape” and “art noise collective” before the show. Thankfully to my relief it was actually a celebration of dumb arse guitar riffs which was at times challenging, often entertaining, but always interesting as Dave Graney and Ash Naylor from Even suited up with Salmon, two other guitarists and two drummers to do battle for space amongst the riffs. They were obviously enjoying themselves, each guitarist taking their cues and picking up where someone else had left off with a kind of choreographed, interpretive dance for electric guitar.

Great rock shows make an emotional connection, gathering momentum they take on their own life, unifying everyone in that room with powerful, intensely savage feelings that gush out from the performers transcending volume or arrogance or finger dexterity. The Blues Explosion demanded our attention up front, a white sheet with the home made logo reflecting the new name (changed after eight albums as the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) hanging above them as they launch into Bell Bottoms, and suddenly I remember what all the fuss is about, I remember why I loved Orange and Now I Got Worry and the new album Damage. This jimmying blues and funk and hip hop into spiky punk has hips. But then as the show continues fatigue sets in, the songs blur into each other with little or no gap between them. The constant introducing the band in the faux Elvis sneer becomes tiresome. The playing is great, seamlessly, effortlessly managing to be tight and loose, but after a while you know you’ve seen everything they do. Get past the façade of two guitars, no bass and a funky drummer punking up blues riffs and there are very lean bones left to pick over. The Blues Explosion leave little room for the meat of songs.

Spencer, Bauer and Simmons are artists of unique vision and integrity who will continue to create diverse, genre defying music without a care what the music press says about them. Their fans will follow every move they make and they will leave a legacy rock bands for years to come will admire. But for all that it just didn’t make me feel anything.

Unfortunately the longer the Blues Explosion played, the more attractive a reformed Midnight Oil became. Never had The Blues Explosion paradox been more obvious, more blatant than forty minutes into the show when the style Jon Spencer, Jude Bauer and Russel Simms carry in spades wasn’t enough to push the show any further and it became dull.

Sunday morning the papers were full of news about what a success WaveAid was, the two million dollars raised, Michael Chugg abusing the crowd and the crowning glory of Midnight Oil uniting the crowd of fifty thousand at the closing of the show. I couldn’t help but think I made the wrong decision.