- “Right, everyone look suitably alternative.”
Many, many moons ago – I’m going to say 1996? – me and the usual boneheads attended one of Jebediah’s early shows at Murdoch uni. (I’m not going to say the very first, but it was definitely one of their first handful of gigs as a fledgling musical entity.)
These 1996-ish Jebs were young, bright and energetic, they kept stage patter to a minimum and seemed genuinely excited to be there.
The lead singer was mop-topped and nasal voiced, the lead guitarist seemingly a little introverted and workmanlike, the female bassist sported attire and a look that was extremely punkish and she pogo’d about for most of the set.
And there was a drummer at the back somewhere.
A lot of jangly guitar bands came and went in the 90s, but despite being way too early to really tell the immediacy of the music in the small crowd was obvious, and even though this was a ‘home’ crowd they weren’t simply pandering to the local kids on stage – these were good choons indeed.
A year or so later and I was supposed to spend my birthday with a larger group of (mostly the same) boneheads at a Jebs show in Freo (I think), only I was gifted a bottle of Wild Turkey Rare Breed at the pre-gig festivities, took a couple of large indulgent swigs and… and… I’m writing about 15 year old events from memory, but I couldn’t have remembered that night the morning after, let alone today. Suffice to say that I didn’t get to the Jebediah show that night, and I had an especially heinous and unpleasant clean up job the next day.
Over the decade or so that followed I saw the Jebs three, maybe four more times. Mudslinger was a small festival that coulda, shoulda, never quite caught on, there was an especially good gig at UWA with Pollyanna and the Hoodoo Gurus, and a show or two where they were the headliners.
Then sometime in the mid noughties Jebediah took a back seat, maybe the fact that all us hairy unruly teens in the 90s are now follically challenged, moderately respectable adults with creaking limbs and beer guts that make it hard to pogo up and down for hours – especially whilst clutching $10 beers in plastic cups.
Albums continued to be released periodically and remained strong, Braxton Hicks especially was consistently excellent and unfairly overlooked. The hooks were still there, Vanessa’s various piercings were still shiny, however the lack of commercial impact in the noughties seemed to signal the death knell of the Jeb’s as a relevant entity, especially with Bob Evans continued ascension as a slightly more mature singer-songwriter.
So last night at Metropol-opol-is Freo took to the stage with a new album in the back pocket and a reasonably full room to entertain, including me and a couple of the usual boneheads.
I should point out that we arrived fashionably around-about on time-ish in our unfashionable attire, meaning we missed one group which were supposedly pretty good, but we managed to catch most of the set of a young group of girls that I mistook for a slightly more macho Hanson.
They boasted a lead singing drummer – much to Fatboy’s chagrin – who was channeling Tia Carrerre from Wayne’s World and a bassist who seemed to say ‘if you like this bassline you’ll love the next six songs’. They were OK, they were sassy (you DO NOT restructure a Led Zep classic!), they probably even had a band name…
They weren’t who we came to see.
Remarkably, aside from the date and the venue the Jebediah portion of the gig was practically the same as that 1996 show, the only difference now that Jebediah have another 25 plus classic live tracks to choose from in a now extremely impressive back catalog.
The strength of Jebediah is perhaps that even their fans don’t have a consensus hands down favourite, some might plump for ‘Harpoon’, others ‘Animal’ or ‘Fall Down’. Until right now I’ve never thought about it, but I can’t come up with one song that I place on a pedestal above all others. (I can say that I have a most hated – Teflon – they didn’t play that last night), even their bitzer album Glee-sides and Sparities boasted some great songs.
As a reflection of that the set list at a Jebs gig is as random as a conversation with Grandma, last night they kicked off with a couple Track 1’s from albums # 2 and 3, but over 90 odd minutes every album and even the Twitch EP were covered off on.
Kev-Bob was suitably whiny and nasal (it was suggested by a compadre that ‘he didn’t hit a note all night’, but I didn’t mind or even notice most of the time), guitarist Chris cut a withdrawn figure as he frenetically noodled his intricate hooks that have helped shape the calves of a generation, Vanessa pogo’d, and the drummer was at the back somewhere… I’m sorry, no-one pays to go see a drummer.
I sang along to bits of favourites, of which there were many, and made sufficient noise at other times when I didn’t know the lyrics. This worked especially well for recent track Battlesong, that I think the band want to make as their anthem, though I have my doubts as to whether it belongs alongside superior stuff like ‘Please Leave’, ‘Star Machine’, ‘Leaving Home’ (bing-bang-bo!) and even equally new ‘Control’.
Only Braxton Hicks was hard done by on the night, I can recall at least one song from the album but I’m pretty sure ‘Sew Your Life’, ‘First Time’, ‘The Seven Signs of Ageing’ and ‘You Oughtta Know’ were omitted from the final 22. Still, not a bad sign when you are forced to skip a couple minor classics because you have so many other great songs to lean on.
Thanks to the band eschewing the usual ‘thanks and good-night… No wait, we’re back for a few more!’ charade there was no lull in proceedings, we ultimately emerged into the fresh Freo air with a few beers in the belly and a short drive home – for me anyway I wasn’t skipper – and a good night’s sleep, now positive in the knowledge that Jebediah are assured a place in Oz Rawk history regardless of what they decide to do next.
Now Tim Rogers THAT is how you put on a show for your fans.
