Jim Jones Revue @ TheAnnandale, Sydney (5/1/12)

Tue 10th Jan, 2012 in Gig Reviews

Rock and Roll is still alive with The Jim Jones Revue. This rollicking, rolling, steam engine of a band swept into the salubrious (ahem!) Annandale and took everyone along for a big ol’ ride. Jim and his Revue have been delivering this garage/rock and roll for a few years now and there seems to be no let up in their energy. Even with Henri Herbert replacing Elliot Mortimer on keys there was no loss of energy or true in your face rock and roll. Henri was on fire throughout the show as was the rest of the fellas!

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey was the perfect place to kick off for some true guitar wailing where Jim showed his Little Richard roots. Guitarist Rupert Orton displayed early that he was going to take us back to 50s rock and roll in a way that was never done by Link Wray, except maybe late at night after the punters had gone home. The world would not have been ready for it back then, they had a hard enough time with Elvis’s hips on TV.

Dishonest John, from Burning Your House Down, took off like a jet engine with Jim and Rupert dueling on guitars, Jim screaming like a banshee and the piano pounding and head shaking of Henri got the entire band revved up. We then entered a Rock and Roll Psychosis which was shaking the ‘Dale brick by brick.

Jim Jones spent a lot of time trying to get the almost full hotel moving. The jolly green giant next to me wanted to shake his tail feather and the air guitar playing hobbit near the bar was trying to energise his section of the crowd, but all in all, it was a fairly engaged but non-enthusiastic audience. Something about week night gigs, even in the midst of summer time, that take a bit of punch out of a live show. Jim and the Revue did their best and played with heart and guts.

Half of the 17 tracks were from their latest release, Burning Your House Down, and besides the aforementioned ones, High Horse, Shoot First, Killin Spree, Premeditated, Big Len, Elemental and the flaming title track were all played. Jim sounded like he needed an exorcist as he yelled through Burning Your House Down. Although the vocal mix was not the best throughout the night it took little away from the high octane rock and roll that this band delivered. We even got a new song entitled Where’d The Money Go?. This may have been a reflection over the past few years of touring and the lack of greenery in their wallets and off shore bank accounts.

With a short walk off the Annandale Stage to powder their nose and for Jim to gargle with a few more razor blades the band turned it up to 11 and wound it up with a slightly extended Princess and The Frog which featured both guitarists strolling and thrashing along the Annandale Bar. Nothing is more rock and roll then a bar stroll for sure and this band dressed in black had brought us the soul and heart of Cash and Jerry Lee filtered through 50 years of rock and roll history. They don’t take a breath during their speed of light set and you won’t either.