While it’s customary for most bands to prepare for the release of a new album with a warm-up gig or two, Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind elect instead to reach for the flamethrower, spark it up and burn the goddamn house down.
You see, hollering frontman Jim Jones doesn’t limber up or get back into the swing of things, for the simple reason that where for some people rock’n’roll is something they listen to, for Jones it’s something that he actually is; he’s always on and this is exactly what he does. One suspects that if he were prevented from performing then he’d probably be found screaming at traffic from a street corner.
The last 18 months have seen the band hone their material and gel as a unit. While the rhythm section of Gavin Jay and Phil Martini can slip from smouldering blues (Till It’s All Gone) to glam stompers (Walk It Out) with almost indecent ease, Matt Millership’s fingers dance across the keys with deadly precision (Aldecide) as Jones and Dr Mal Troon trade killer guitars licks on the polemical Alphashit.
And therein lies the appeal of Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind. This is music steeped in sex, magic and dissent, played in intimate surroundings as if it were an arena. Incendiary rock’n’roll at its best.
