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Review: 'JOINTPOP/ KILLING FLOOR, THE/ JACK CITY/ EVERSONS'
'London, Camden, Dublin Castle, 28 July 2016'   


-  Genre: 'Indie'

Our Rating:
By the time we arrived, this generous bill was already underway and we'd missed a band already, to be honest this bill would have worked better with just three bands IN my opinion. Either way I was there for tonight's headliners Jointpop who had come over all the way from Trinidad And Tobago for the first date on their current UK tour to promote new record Reality T & T on the legendary Flicknife Records.

The Eversons were already on when we arrived and they had actually travelled further than the headliners as they come from New Zealand. They play full-on spasmodic indie -unk that reminded me of a cross between The Straitjacket Fits and Bailter Space with a strong hint of Liam Lynch as the first song we heard in full seemed to be called Do It To Yourself. The the singer convulsed around the stage and spat the words at us and it was pretty cool overall.

Stuck In The City rammed home the band's sense of alienation with some really cool guitar work. Baby You're a Jerk (or whatever it was called) was a real angry, kiss off to an ex who needed to go. Full of passion and pain. They closed with a song about leaving home, Packed My Bags, and, well, we were left in no doubt that had the singer stayed at home and put on lipstick he wouldn't have survived. The Eversons were well worth seeing and I wish I'd caught the whole set.

Next on and coming from one of England's most fertile musical cities at the moment were Jack City, who unlike all the other countless Leeds bands I've seen or reviewed in the last couple of years have come Straight Outta t'Ginnell deep in the ghettos of their imagination. That must be somewhere in Hyde Park or Chapeltown but in reality is probably somewhere nice near Headingley. Yes they are a white Hip-Hop duo who try very hard to keep it real but fail miserably.

To be fair to Jack, he acknowledges early on that this isn't a hip hop audience and he's right about that as he raps poorly about his Girls who are doing the stroll trying to cop some real good baps or something like that. They sounded a lot like Tribe Called Quest but without the talent or anything as memorable as I Left My Wallet in El Segundo.

They added a backing singer about 4 songs in to flesh things out and he looked out of place as he shuffled around the stage and tried to add to the beats. But for much of the set he couldn't work out how to sing into the microphone! About the best tune they had was Prizefighter but to be honest I think they were rubbish.

Next on were The Killing Floor - no not the late 60's British blues rock band Killing Floor, but the US/UK indie rock band The Killing Floor who I may have seen once before but I'm not certain about that. It's probably because what they play is pretty much bog standard landfill indie rock of the most easily forgettable type. It doesn't matter how impassioned the singer might be, as none of the songs stick in my head for more than 5 minutes after they have finished playing.

About the best things they had were Devil Dog, which at least had some grit to it and High which featured the best guitar solo of the set. But really the only way I'll be seeing them again is if they support someone else I want to see.

Finally it was time for Jointpop to bring their Trini indie punk to us. They opened with Let's Pray For Rock & Roll: an impassioned plea for Rock & Roll's soul and the need for fresh blood to keep the beast alive and well. It was well-received and I really liked the Keyboards. Camden Ketchup, about the band's first visit to Camden, was full of wry observations and at times there was a bit of a Mott the Hoople feel to the music.

Monday Morning Love Situation slowed things down a bit for this rather memorable song about that awkward Monday Morning feeling that some of us are more than familiar with. Gary Hector really got into the story in the lyrics and it went down really well. Simply Beautiful was still a bit laid back and had more of the really cool keyboards to help your loved ones know how much you care for them.

Down To me, I think, was next and it had some really cool drumming on it as well as more of the Hoople-esque touches which against the fairly punky guitar was an interesting contrast. The song I have down as No Difference just kept them nicely in a decent groove with the anger in the lyrics not always matching the musical backing but sounding cool all the same.

Souls Going Cheap was nicely funky punk with the lyrics spat at us. Together picked up the pace a bit with some really manic drumming but as ever with this lot my ears are drawn to the keyboards going all Ian Maclagan on us. Then the song that really got the place going, Don't Tell My In Laws I'm An Outlaw with it's full-on sing-along chorus was for me the best song I heard all night. I'm sure you can guess what it's about: a real live treat and a good way of guaranteeing they'd get an encore.

They returned for a good blast of Trinidad's Burning and well they were too by this point. It was an ingenious way to leave everyone smiling at the end of a pretty good night out with a very mixed bill. We just had time to catch the last train home too, even if the damn thing was 10 minutes late so we had rushed more than was necessary. Jointpop are on tour in the UK for another couple of weeks, so catch them if you can.
  author: simonovitch

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