LIVE: THE SCREAMING JETS – Perth, 22 Nov 2024

LIVE: THE SCREAMING JETS – Perth, 22 Nov 2024
With The Wedges and Mammal – The Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Linda Dunjey

We’ve not heard of opener The Wedges before, but it’s immediately obvious they’ve been listening to the right stuff: Black Sabbath, Metallica, Wolfmother DNA all seem present in their howling dervish of sound.

Frontwoman Molly is a force of nature matched only by the wall of bombastic riffs the band throw out – riffs which creep through the venue’s foundations and ensure your legs are rivetted to the ground. She shows hints of PJ Harvey, growls like a deatheater, sings like a bird. It’s an epic performance and one worth getting there early for.

Mammal showed no sign of being upstaged by the excellent openers, hitting the stage running with a sound perhaps most reminiscent of the heavier side of the ‘90s, but no less individual for that. Ezekial Ox is a fervent rock n’ roll preacher of a frontman, a manic ADHD energizer bunny never resting from the moment he launches into I Know What You’re Thinking wearing half a mirrorball on his head.

Showcasing their new album The Penny Drop, they are impassioned, political and in your face as Rage Against The Machine ever were, and very, very good, Ox conducting singalongs from amidst the crowd, encouraging younger kids present to rock out like a late-night heavy A.F. creche, and finished their hard n’ heavy set wearing a horned fur hat like he’s about to storm the capitol.

That’s two triumphant bands already – and the best is yet to come.

A year or so on from band founder, bassist, chief songwriter and legend Paul Woseen’s passing, we wondered if we’d ever see The Jets live again. Thankfully Gleeson, Jimi Hocking and relative new boy Scott Kingman felt it best to continue to celebrate Woseen’s legacy and here we are.

Their headlining set starts with intro tape Screaming Jets by one hit wonder Johnny Warman, and storms through their nine albums in a blur. One of Oz Rock’s finest, each song is enhanced by the pub choir present, and if attendance was a little disappointing, the crowd were in full enough voice that it barely mattered.

Needle In The Red and C’Mon get the show started, Gleeson looking like he’s having a ball chucking cartwheels and rolling around, the crowd on side from the first note. Eve Of Destruction, a bluesy Shine On and a handful of tracks from most recent album Professional Misconduct don’t disappoint.

“We’re 35 years in,” the frontman states. “Who saw us in 1990? Gluttons for punishment!”

Sure, they’ve mellowed a bit in those three-and-a-half decades, but that’s not a bad thing. None of us have got any younger, and Gleeson’s become more diplomatic and less of a PR nighmare. That tour saw The Jets supporting Baby Animals, and Gleeson alludes to a breakup with a Perth girl he won’t name (Suzi something – wink wink) that led him to write Lying With Her, performed here in an acoustic country style, complete with hat.

We warmed to Dave Gleeson out front of The Angels during his dozen years as frontman, but Screaming Jets was the band he was always meant to be with, and the band he sounds most suited singing for.

Their Boys Next Door cover Shivers is as great as ever, Helping Hand showing the admirable depth to the band’s sound, before their biggest hit, Better, rocks harder than most ever could in their dreams.

It’s not a perfect set – Living In England and F.R.C. would have managed that, though Gleeson did state earlier that they’d probably not play one song on the set list due to the number of kids at the show with their parents, so that’s probably the latter in all its C-word glory – but a raucous cover of Neil Young’s Rockin’ In The Free World as encore underlines the great night had by all.

 

 

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries