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Tour Dates
06/16/15 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
06/17/15 Columbia, MO Rose Music Hall 06/18/15 St. Louis, MO Old Rock House 06/19/15 Cincinnati, OH Woodward Theater 06/20/15 Morgantown, WV 123 Pleasant St. 06/26/15 Garorock Festival 06/27/15 Rock Dans Tous Ses Etats 08/15/15 "Summer Sonic" (Chiba) 08/16/15 "Summer Sonic" (Osaka) Read More
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Very little air circulation in a building can create sauna-like conditions which are perfect for the following things: having a heat stroke, having adult relations (ala Body Heat) and watching New York City’s own irrepressible, inexplicable, unbelievable Blues Explosion!!!! put on killer rock and roll show.
But before the show even started, Jon Spencer slipped out from backstage to spin records for folks filtering into the Turf Club. As you might expect, Spencer has flawless taste and was serving up 50s and 60s-era garage and soul singles. Having someone DJing prior to the opening act is a great idea period, but knowing that it was Spencer made it extra special.
Once everyone was good and stirred up, Daddy Long Legs, a trio based in NYC but who originally hail from St. Louis, took to the stage to churn out some fantastic hip-shaking howlers. The band featured shaggy-haired Mr. Long Legs himself on vocals (he also wailed on harmonica and a gorgeous resonator guitar) accompanied by young-Keith Richards-look-alike Murat Akturk playing a mean slide guitar and drummer Josh Styles. Styles sat in between his two bandmates decked out in shades and a hat hammering out a loud beat with maracas on drum while they laid on a Howlin’ Wolf/Bo Diddley-style boogie. Kim Fowley (RIP) called them “the next step in the evolution of pagan Rock 'n' Roll!”
Against an American flag backdrop, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion kicked into their set with a slew of new tracks starting with “Wax Dummy,” off the recent album Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015. Jon Spencer and guitarist Judah Bauer dragging their picks across those guitar strings was like striking a match and throwing it into an audience well lubricated by alcohol and sweat. The result was as combustive as Russell Simins pounding his sticks into those skins. Babe, consider me on fire.
Over the next hour and a half, the Blues Explosion kept a relentless pace, throttling the sold-out crowd with heavy riffs, barely giving them the chance to clap let alone catch their breath. The songs seemed to melt into each other. Older favorites like “Chicken Dog” off of 1996’s Now I Got Worry and “Blues X Man” from 1994’s Orange record meshed seamlessly with new song “Do The Get Down.” They even threw in a cover of the Dead Boys’ “What Love Is” with Simins taking the lead and roaring into the mic.
Fans were still moving despite the heat because with this kind of music it’s physically impossible not to. The songs, a potent hybrid of garage, noise and rhythm and blues, contained plenty of stops and rhythm changes that made for an unpredictable show. It felt like the Blues Explosion were teetering on the edge of complete madness and the crowd was right there with them. And if the groove didn’t make you surrender yourself completely, then Spencer’s hypnotic command of that blue-hued theremin that sat behind him would have surely made your pants quiver.
Jon Spencer has said in interviews that the whole idea behind the Blues Explosion was to keep the spirit of early rock and roll alive. Well if rock and roll is the collapsed, bloated mass on the beach, having been dragged from the ocean and a certain watery death, then the Blues Explosion is the 5,000 megawatts of electricity the paramedic is administering straight into its weakened heart. The theatrics, the danger and the whipped up sexual energy that made and continues to make rock and roll exciting exists in the rollicking licks of Judah Bauer’s guitar, the punishing rhythms of Russell Simins drum and the sweat pouring down Jon Spencer’s face as he’s crowing in a blissed-out state into the microphone and at an equally enraptured audience.
Freedom Towers - No Wave Dance Party 2015 is out now on Mom+Pop Music.
But before the show even started, Jon Spencer slipped out from backstage to spin records for folks filtering into the Turf Club. As you might expect, Spencer has flawless taste and was serving up 50s and 60s-era garage and soul singles. Having someone DJing prior to the opening act is a great idea period, but knowing that it was Spencer made it extra special.
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Daddy Long Legs
photo by Amy
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Against an American flag backdrop, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion kicked into their set with a slew of new tracks starting with “Wax Dummy,” off the recent album Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015. Jon Spencer and guitarist Judah Bauer dragging their picks across those guitar strings was like striking a match and throwing it into an audience well lubricated by alcohol and sweat. The result was as combustive as Russell Simins pounding his sticks into those skins. Babe, consider me on fire.
Over the next hour and a half, the Blues Explosion kept a relentless pace, throttling the sold-out crowd with heavy riffs, barely giving them the chance to clap let alone catch their breath. The songs seemed to melt into each other. Older favorites like “Chicken Dog” off of 1996’s Now I Got Worry and “Blues X Man” from 1994’s Orange record meshed seamlessly with new song “Do The Get Down.” They even threw in a cover of the Dead Boys’ “What Love Is” with Simins taking the lead and roaring into the mic.
Fans were still moving despite the heat because with this kind of music it’s physically impossible not to. The songs, a potent hybrid of garage, noise and rhythm and blues, contained plenty of stops and rhythm changes that made for an unpredictable show. It felt like the Blues Explosion were teetering on the edge of complete madness and the crowd was right there with them. And if the groove didn’t make you surrender yourself completely, then Spencer’s hypnotic command of that blue-hued theremin that sat behind him would have surely made your pants quiver.
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an audience well lubricated by alcohol and sweat
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Freedom Towers - No Wave Dance Party 2015 is out now on Mom+Pop Music.
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Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Turf Club, St Paul (14 June 2015) photo by Amy
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