Rock and Pop: Coming up - Jim Jones Revue at The Scala
Published: 28 October 2010
by ALAN STAFFORD
IN 2010, live rock ’n’ roll is all too often left to the tame, sickly sweet nostalgia of tribute acts and wedding groups.
Enter The Jim Jones Revue, a band that put the fire and brimstone back into the music that sent the kids to hell.
At times the packed Scala seemed to be hosting a musical seance, channelling the spirits of Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Sun-era Elvis through The New York Dolls. Like the original rock ’n’ rollers, JJR know about putting on a show, with frontman Jim Jones throwing himself around the stage.
At the heart of the musical maelstrom is the dementedly talented piano playing of Elliott Mortimer, who must get sick of the Jerry Lee comparisons, but deserves them.
The band wear their influences on their sleeve but without just being slaves to the past.
Burning Your House Down, their new album, is very much in the same electrifying vein as the band’s 2008 debut, and the gleefully malevolent title track was a real stand-out.
The capacity crowd showed its appreciation with exuberant moshing erupting for the set-closer, Princess and the Frog.
Ferociously entertaining.