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A few months ago, upon the first proper single release by Aussie band Jet, we told you you'd be hearing a whole lot more of them in the near future. Well, we were right, and you have been, even if you don't realise it. Said song, Are You Gonna Be My Girl, is currently glued to your TV sets courtesy of a music jukebox advert and a mobile phone advert.
Don't recognise it? Well, the couple of thousand crammed into the London Astoria certainly do. It's chucked into the set early on and prefaced with a provocative, "If I see anyone of you not dancing to this then I'm gonna come down there and kick your f**king arses," from mainman Nic Cester. He needn't have worried of course for everyone duly obliges, but then how could they not shake their booty to this not-very-distant musical cousin of Iggy Pop's Lust For Life?
Cester's bravado appears to be partly Australian male and partly beer-induced (the two being very closely correlated, you understand) but the cockiness and alcohol are aligned perfectly with the greasy, scuzzy, rock 'n' roll party dynamics of the music. Current single, Rollover DJ, is a case in point, delivered like an electrical storm with high voltage, AC/DC guitars and a pylon-sized, anthemic chorus that has the crowd of twentysomethings with their fists in the air.
Things occasionally go koala-shaped. Guitarist Cameron Muncey takes the lead on a song and ends up sounding whiney in comparison to Cester. Almost as if to make him feel better, Cester delivers a slower number hopelessly off-key for its first couple of minutes. But then with Look What You've Done he gives the sort of gut-wrenching, strident performance that shows he's not just a great frontman in the making, but a fine vocalist too. Who likes predictability anyway?
For the encore, Cester comes on with his acoustic guitar to give us a startling rendition of Move On, with his brother and otherwise drummer, Chris, on vocal duties. They dedicate the song to their father who they've just found out has lung cancer. The fact that Nic is obliviously puffing away on a cigarette whilst telling us this merely lends a macabre irony to the raw, blues-y ballad.
A blast of high-octane rock later and it's all over. Incredibly, the set has barely lasted 45 minutes but even more incredibly, it hasn't felt too short because they've managed to pack everything from infeasibly loud hard rock and mid-paced anthems through to ballads and stage banter into their serpentine set.
Jet are one of the few bands who leave you with a smile on your face. Jumbo status awaits...
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