Jimmy & The Mirrors, ColonelKernel, Jay Walker And ThePedestrians @ Rocket Bar,Adelaide (17/4/09)

Sun 19th Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

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JAY WALKER AND THE PEDESTRIANS
Which brings us to our opening act. From any other perspective outside of one I frequently find myself inebriated in, none of this shit should EVER make sense. Let’s start with the bleedingly obvious shall we? Short of shit like “Andrew Higgs & The Sandcastle Harum” (which clearly takes the urinal cake in any pissing contest) this is either the most fiendishingly badass band name I’ve ever encountered in any Adelaide band (no shit.. how awesome is it?), or it’s clearly the most stupid. Seriously, what IS it with Adelaide bands and their insane need to use entire sentences complete with punctuation in effort to identify themselves!? (yes I’m looking at YOU “Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!”). No shit, we’ve just lost three perfectly good bands with simple single word titles like: Swords, Zeta and Lumonics; and THIS is the hell I’ve got to deal with now!? FUUUCK!! Yup, as first impressions go they’re not off to a good start, but then it only gets worse. Not only are they cursed with some of the worst stage lighting I’ve ever seen at Rocket Bar (damn you flaring white spotlights.. damn you to hell!) and it’s also only their third gig, but they also appear to be missing a bass player too!? Awesome! I’m SO gonna love trashing this band! Or at least I would’ve if they weren’t so damn freakingly accomplished at what they do. Damn! Jay Walker And The Pedestrians one of those chance discoveries: as if from nowhere they arise, fully fledged, and they blow everyone the fuck away. I swear there’s a lab somewhere where they’re all grown “test tube” style hooked up to ipods; and they ever so slightly freak me out. In essense they’re a garage band, in the classic vein of the 60’s British Invasion: think a mix between The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, a little bit of Lennon’s nasal twang cross-faded with Lou Reed; and that’d be your monkey. Granted this kind’ve shit is dime a dozen of late, but it’s their delivery tonight that truly nails it. With Dan on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, and Ryan on lead guitar they cook up riff after riff of infectious twang that fills the entire chromatic scale. They don’t just shred them out like idiot savants, like some monkey-arse “fashion” band, there’s some real thought put into this shit. A smokey blues feel, guitars swinging in and out through complimentary octaves, tripped out solos, noodling grooves; you don’t even notice the bass is missing. Combined with Alister on drums chopping it up short and sharp, and some (arguably cheesy) lyrics from Dan and it’s a fiendish combination. They’ve mastered the art of the three minute pop song and it’s only their third gig!? Score! I don’t even care that the lighting sucks, or that my photos will get crapped on, and that my video footage will be even worse (or about a million and one other things that could possibly go wrong tonight), they’ve got that easy going mad buzz happening; they’ll go far!

COLONEL KERNEL
Yup, if it ain’t the lighting, then surely there’s something else that Rocket Bar could humiliate you with: and for our second support act it’s this ridiculously small stage that (almost) proves to be their downfall. You could almost make a game of it, wondering just how many clowns you could cram up here till the whole stage collapses down three flights of stairs and explodes out into the street below. And if you think this band’s having a tough time of it with a three piece rock band plus two saxophonists, a bongo percussionist and a keyboardist crammed into the approximate dimensions of a broom closet; could you imagine all thirteen members of God God Damnit Damnit pulling the exact same schtick!? Still, whether they be stuck in a lift poking each other’s eyes out, or playing in an open field, Colonel Kernel still deliver the goods. With their madenning jazz improvised style, they thrive in this chaos. Think of them as a New Orleans creole cook-off crossed with a spaghetti western. Think of them as Faith No More’s “King For A Day / Fool For A Lifetime”, the sounds of Red Snapper and The Propellerheads (I swear I hear elements of “Spybreak!” in here somewhere) and a filmscore to any given Quentin Tarantino feature. Now imagine all that jamming in a port-a-loo tonight with someone flicking the light switch on and off. Granted it’s not for everyone, but it sure as shit works for me. The real appeal I find is the loose way in which they interpret each of their songs. It’s not so much the structure, but the many twist and turns they make along the way that keeps it engaging. It’s the way each musician plays off each other like a slapstick comedy, like cartoon characters. The lazy flamenco yammerings of Tim Inglis as he jams away on lead vocals and guitar. The synchronised way in which both Rohan Goldsmith and Frank Morris Jnr swing their saxaphones about like they’re on a mini golf course. The batshit insane antics of Kevin van der Zwaag, flapping about and shrieking on the keys like he’s fresh out of the Muppet Show. There’s so much interaction going on stage, it’s like they don’t even need an audience. Which when you’re dealing with Rocket Bar’s imfamously fickle “fashion” crowds, all hidden away in the dark, isn’t without a tinge of irony but Colonel Kernel are still winning them over all the same. Even in Rocket Bar with half the band members stuffed away in the corners they still find what they’re looking for. It ain’t the best I’ve seen of them live; but it’ll do just fine.

JIMMY & THE MIRRORS
And now we’ve reached that moment. That tipping point we always hope to hit in any given night on the piss: between sobriety and rampaging stupidity, between that which is real and that which is surreal, between any hope of keeping a cohesive narrative and that which fast becomes the closing scenes of “2001: A Space Odyssey” all mixed up with “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” and a mad tab of acid. Which when you’re a headlining act quite like THIS one is no better place to be. Jimmy & The Mirrors. They’re a classic “party band” in the best and WORST ways possible (but more so the former). Everything about them screams “binge drinking epidemic” in quite the same way that their spastic mismatched shirts will be sure to echo the technicolour applause your screaming innards will make all over the porcelain soon afterwards. For what they arguably lack in polish or articulate songwriting skills (let alone colour coordination) they easily make up for in shit-staining energy on a live stage. It’s the same balls-to-the-wall strategy that’s often employed by many infamous party bands in the past from Tyger Tyger to Tony Font Show and when you’re blind drunk and in the thick of it? sure it may be fucking retarded, but it STILL kills a crowd dead all the same (*cough* isn’t that right The Touch!?). Which when multiplied by the fact they’re also shooting a live video tonight thanks to Nigel Koop (aka: that bearded goon from “Home For The Def”), guest appearances from both Nick Bastiras (on mouth organ) and Timmy Friday (on trumpet) from Tyger Tyger, and a veritable locust swarm of screaming fans they’ve invited to totally lose their shit out front; makes for a truly deadly combination. Oh and need I mention that their drummer Kaurna has freaking glitter on him!? No, possibly not. Chances are you won’t even notice tiny details like that beyond everything else they’re throwing at us tonight. Like a fork stuck in a light socket, watch everyone around you do the “Michael Jackson”, duck and weave through all the flying debris and flung faeces, wake up hours later yammering halfway up a tree; aaaah what’s not to love!?

I realise that doesn’t begin to explain much of anything about who Jimmy & The Mirrors are as an actual band. And if you were here tonight: chances are you wouldn’t be able to explain much of anything either (or be able to process solid foods). True to the name and true to their nature, there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors at play here; I’d expect no less from a “party band”. Still if you CAN stop your head spinning for a few second there IS some actual substance here beyond all the flashing lights and screaming groupies. Their sound, as much as I can gather, channels most of its influences from the angular extremes of brit dancepop: from Franz Ferdinand, The Arctic Monkeys, Last Shadow Puppets, The Kooks and The Wombats to the early 60’s shred of The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones. They’ve got that iconic four on the floor beat, those happy handclap choruses, the buzzing guitars, it’s all there infectious as fuck. You can hear it in that live video “The Beat Of The Drum”. It’s dumb as all hell, but it’s catchy; it’s all about the energy with this band. And then when they pulled a guest hiphop MC up on stage and busted out with an insane “Mark Ronson” style cover of Edwyn Collins “A Girl Like You”!? No shit it fucken blew the roof off!

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