Thursday 17 September 2009
HMV I will admit, have done some great work on The Forum since their takeover. Its now bright & clean(ish) inside, feels revitalised and is a completely different venue compared to its former self. However this has come at a price, quite a steep price actually. Ticket prices are up as well as the price of the flat substandard lager (£3.60!) a terrible showing HMV who are clearly making up for losses in the consumer industry by fleecing the gig going public. Shame on you!
Right, To the music. This evening’s solitary support band were Detroit Social Club. Their slant on alternative downbeat noise rock was rather pants. There we precious few melodies of note and even a couple of choice hooks were not enough to stop this set going down in flames. Crowd were absolutely non-responsive, probably all bored stiff by the lack on enthusiasm onstage or ranting at the price of a beer. Not the greatest start, neither the best choice of support group for the retro rockers who were to come.
Jet are back and have a new found optimism surrounding them post-family crisis which influences 2006’s Shine On so heavily. Their latest LP is a much rejuvenated band and this is exactly what the crowd got here this evening. A band full of good time feeling and rock and roll spirit driven by their rolling stones-esque riffing and a stomping.
The majority of the set, to my delight, came from their first breakthrough record Get Born which propelled them so rapidly into the mainstream. Tracks such as the spirited Rollover DJ, swagger loaded new single She’s A Genius, another newbie K.I.A. and their most recognised classic Are You Gonna Be My Girl ignited the early set and got the Forum jumping. Their live setup was unique, but brilliant…tag team singers with the brothers Cester on guitar and drums trading vocals to great effect.
The standout tracks here this evening were the ballads…and there were quite a few of them. Move On, was superb, followed by the almost as impressive Look What You’ve Done. It was the reaction from the crowd to these slow burning sing-along’s which sparked frontman Nic into saying.
We wouldn’t normally play this but we feel it’s all right this evening.
What followed was a piece of heartfelt majesty as jet played their tribute to their late father, shine on. This was clearly quite a tough track for the guys to play and the crowd felt the high levels of emotions on each piano beat.
Ending the evening on a brighter note they reverted yet again to their first LP and the energetic Get What You Need and the raucous rocker Get Me Out Of Here which is what we duly did…cue mass exodus onto the streets of Kentish town.
Solid and professional, Jet played to their strengths playing what seemed like 60 percent from album One not dwelling on their latest effort, many bands could learn a thing or two from these great retro pop rockers.
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