The Jim Jones Revue will blast their way through three area shows in three nights (photo by Nathan Seabrook)
Thursday, July 22, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St., $10, 9:30
Friday, July 23, Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., $10-$12, 10:00
Saturday, July 24, Knitting Factory Brooklyn, 361 Metropolitan Ave., $10-$12, 9:00
www.myspace.com/thejimjonesrevue
There’ll be a helluva whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on this week as the Jim Jones Revue hits the town for three area shows. Former leader of the UK band Thee Hypnotics, Jim Jones has been fronting the Jim Jones Revue since 2007, playing thrashing punk rhythm & blues loud and fast. The five-piece features Rupert Orton joining Jones on guitar, Elliot Mortimer on piano, Gavin Jay on bass, and Nick Jones on drums. They know how to rip it up and spit it out, melding Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley with a raw punk aesthetic, highlighted by Mortimer absolutely killing on the keyboards. Their psychotic brand of raucous rock and roll shrieks and shouts on such triumphant tunage as “Princess & the Frog,” “The Meat Man,” “Another Daze,” and, justifiably, “Rock n Roll Psychosis.” The band’s eponymously titled debut album, which came out in England in 2008 but has just been released on vinyl in the States this month, was recorded over forty-eight straight hours on a four track, with no overdubs, succeeding in capturing the frantic energy of their live shows. The Jim Jones Revue will be at the Mercury Lounge on July 22 with Hunters, at Maxwell’s on July 23 with the Ribeye Bros. and Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers, and at the Knitting Factory Brooklyn on July 24 with Des Roar and Stalkers.
Saturday night’s show should be particularly hot, with New York City’s Des Roar one of the opening bands. The quartet, led by singers Ben Wolcott (guitar) and Lyla Vander (drums), is on the road with their debut album, MAD THINGS (December 2009), a potent combo of surfer rock and 1960s guitar pop and harmonies. Just try not to fall for those all-too-familiar riffs on “Ted Bundy Was a Lady’s Man” and “Ballad of Lil Bangs.” Really. We dare you.