A review
Jason & The Scorchers / The Whybirds
Relentless Garage - Highbury-Islington May 8
If you ever get the chance to see the Whybirds, take it!
This young band from Bedford take their influences and wears them on their chequered sleeves! We are talking Young, Springsteen, the Byrds, Americana with a cool British edge. Harmony vocals an an energy from just playing and playing and coming together in that special organic way that is hard to describe. Early the Church spring to mind somehow… brilliant.
And so, over to the amazing Jason & The Scorchers.
I saw these guys in Stockholm in 1985 and was blown away by the stage prescence and the attitude especially of Jason and guitarist Warner E. Hodges. JATS have reformed, recorded a new album and are now touring to promote it and to spread a little bit of Rock’n’Roll happiness in the world. Needless to say, the show was amazing, and in true Joe Strummer style, Jason invited us to come and have a chat with them afterwards. As they hail from Nashville, I just had to mention that we’re playing in Louisville, KY at the end of May.
Warner E. Hodges has to be one of the most entertaining
guitarists in the world today. He plays a blinding mixture of country, rockabilly and pure rock’n’roll and smiles like he was having the time of his life throughout the show.
Jason is a world class entertainer and a great storyteller! He knows seemingly by instinct what it takes to make a crowd happy and to get across a message at the same time. I am really chuffed to see them back, and altough I went to the gig mainly to see the Whybirds, I can safely say that JATS are back in my life. Incidentally they have a Swedish drummer, Pontus Snibb who hails from my old hometown of Malmö, south Sweden.
