Jim Jones Revue Burn Down The Jazz Café

1:45 PM GMT 05/02/2010

THE JIM JONES REVUE turned Camden's Jazz Cafe into a mad asylum of rock'n'roll psychosis last night, as they headlined one of the most crazed MOJO Clubs ever.

Before the onslaught of JJR, London's one-man warped-blues machine Lewis Floyd Henry (pictured right) kicked things off with a set of furious fuzztone vignettes. Armed with big hair, a crooked bowtie, an oversized waistcoat, a foot drum kit and a wailing Fender Stratocaster, LFH married country-blues and Hendrix-esque divebombing to tales of late night city life. A broken string early on forced a brief break in proceedings - the lull admirably filled with the rare R&B choices of MOJO DJs Lois Wilson and Jon Harrrington - but stand-out tracks Rickety Old Rollercoaster and Where's The Party? laid the perfect foundation for the next hour of rockabilly rioting. You can check out four of his tracks here.

Since forming The Revue in 2007, Jim Jones - the jet-fuelled ex-Thee Hypnotics vocal powerhouse - has led his band through a hurricane of live shows and the recording of their first, bone-shattering LP. Last night's set was predominantly made up of material from that album: a relentless meld of flame-grilled rock'n'soul and punk-R&B. In fact it's rumoured that the Jazz Café had to hold back on the band's usual volume for fear of broken eardrums and complaints from the entire postcode.

"It's all about the swing," Jones told MOJO late last year. And swing they do. From the super-strength rhythm section of bassist Gavin Jay and drummer Nick Jones, to the twisting guitar gnarl of Rupert "Beth's Brother" Orton and the clang-a-clang boogie of Elliot Mortimer's piano; there is no stopping them.

What makes the Jim Jones Revue such an exciting live prospect is their heady mix of quality songs and unpredictability. Their mining of the pre-1960 rock'n'roll sound serves them well. You feel that you've lived with these songs for a long time, yet, in a live setting, their material doesn't feel constrained by category. It just makes you stand up and listen before knocking you off your feet.

A new album will hopefully see the light of day later this year. In the meantime, catch this band live while you can.

Ross Bennett

Photos courtesy of Simon Fernandez

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 1:45 PM GMT 05/02/2010

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