Review by Alan Steenson for MPM
Friday night apparently is rock night and in particular Aussie Rock Night… so to save me a few quid on flights I decided instead to pop to the Telegraph Building in Belfast and treat my ears to some thumping rock by JET.
The current tour is a 20 year anniversary of their album ‘Get Born’ which I do remember well, and to be honest they pretty much disappeared off the radar for me after that.
As it turns out there was a pretty good reason as they stopped making studio albums way back in 2009 having split and reformed a few times since having only released three studio albums.
They do however have a new single to promote whilst on this tour and who knows perhaps another album in the offing according to recent reports… provided they stay together.
The 4-piece outfit consists of the two Cester brothers, Nic on vocals and Chris on drums with Cameron Muncey on lead guitar and vocals and Mark Wilson on bass…. With assistance on keyboards from Louis Macklin .
Anyway enough of the intros, the band took to the stage to the sound of “Love is by the Masters Apprentices”, who after a quick google is a 70’s Aussie rock band, looking the part in a leather jacket and mop top hair Nic and the lads launched into Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is from the 2006 album “Shine On” starting off with the singers high pitched vocal offering… until bam … his recognisable voice is in full flow and we are off…. high tempo with excellent backing vocals from Cam complimenting the higher pitched vocals… by now it is very clear this is a very tight outfit…Without a moment to take a breath She’s a Genius from 2009 “Shaka Rock” with its riff reminiscent of ‘the Knacks’, ‘My Sharona’ fills the airwaves… and at this point I am noticing the crowd and their reaction and whilst it wasn’t a full house, those that are here this evening are well aware of this bands back catalogue.
Black Hearts (On Fire) also from Dhaka Rock completed the early intro songs, Nic addressed the crowd to let us know they had a new single out Hurry Hurry, the guitar was dispensed with and out came the tambourine as the intro to this song was just vocals, drum and a hint of bass for the first few versus… then straight into the chorus, for me the backing vocals from drummer Chris overpowered the impact of the chorus which was otherwise superb.
Last Chance began the set list of their debut album “Get Born” a stomping track full of wooo’s and yeah’s which to be honest was annoying on record but for some reason live it was great. Nic then smiled as he knew what the reaction was for the crowd next as they launched into Are You Gonna Be My Girl the song that propelled them into the limelight and will no doubt keep them in beers until they are pensioners, with it being used in adverts and film scores for the last 20 years with its recognisable opening riff.
Nic stood on the front speaker and decided not to bother singing the opening verse as the crowd did this loudly and in tune much to his enjoyment. This is such a great iconic song and was terrific to hear this live and the atmosphere from the crowd just added to it… Rollover D.J; my personal favourite; off “Get Born” is a track that wouldn’t be out of place on a Stones album and sounded brilliant with great with its catchy chorus and tambourine accompaniment.
Jet do have those nice touches of a nod to other rock bands and whilst they have times when they have a particular sound whether it’s The Stones, The Who, ACDC , Tom Petty and in the case of the next song ELO/Beatles sounding Look What You’ve Done slowing it right down with the stage lit blue and Nic saying to help out if I forget words… he didn’t and the crowd sang along anyway.
Get What You Need brought us back to the familiar speed lit under magenta lights and Louis Mackin’s Hammond organ getting a good bashing for this excellent track. Another slow tune Move On got the crowd singing again with its American rock style harmonies and harmonica accompaniment by the bass player Mark Wilson, who in true bass player style shunned the limelight up to this point.
Radio Song Gave us the first taste of Cam singing, pitch perfect, and he had a well-deserved compliment at the start from Nic to their 20 years together, the song itself is a slow number and has a distorted guitar riff during it that reminded me of Sonic Youth.
Get Me Outta Here another single off the album was followed by another one Cold Hard Bitch, both of which should have dented the charts higher but as we all know the charts nowadays are bollocks with streaming destroying a once loved institution… enough of my rant…back to Take It or Leave It, a blistering song delivered with precision and vocally it really shows how strong a voice Nic has, he looked shattered after that and took a well-deserved break with a sit down on the Drum stage whist Cam brought us Come Around Again, after this a nice touch of best wishes to someone who turned 18 today, and good to see someone there that wasn’t even born when the album was released… guess they ‘got born’ (see what I did there) Lazy Gun up next, was harder sounding with less keyboard effects compared to the record but worked really well and my god! what a note held at end by Nic.
The usual ‘thanks for coming’ speech along with a ‘thankyou’ to some dude wearing a jacket he particularly thought was cool during the gig, was followed by the last song of the “Get Born” set Timothy with Cam singing again with a terrific ending …much better live.
The band left the stage with the exception of Nic who swapped to an acoustic guitar and played the title track of their second album “Shine On”, on record a gospel sounding track but acoustically was very good, with the crowd swaying back and forth singing along.
The band rejoined the stage and gave us the final two songs of the evening, Seventeen off “Shaka Rock” was on point and for me was OK but could have done with the B side of the new single “Un’Avventure” it is worth checking out!!, the last song of the evening was Rip It Up a perfect song to end the night… fast furious and catchy.
Tonight, those that were smart enough to come tonight were treated to a band that are very underrated and as tight as any I’ve seen, but they need to get back into the studio forthwith and…… “Get Busy”
Photography by Darren McVeigh for MPM
