Review | Jim Jones All Stars at The Wedgewood Rooms: 'A brooding sense of danger'

Jim, who was a regular face at punk and rock gigs in the city and an enthusiastic supporter of live music (and occasional gig reviewer for The News), died suddenly earlier this month. They dedicate their set to him and play in front of a revolving backdrop of pics of Jim, which is a nice touch. He’s going to be missed.

Up next are west country sci-fi surf loons Palooka 5. Driven by twanging guitar a la Dick Dale and Duane Eddy, they throw in hefty doses of Hammond organ and the ethereal howl of the theremin. With husband and wife team T and B Baigent sharing vocal duties on their whacked-out lyrics, there are also shades of the B52s in their dynamic.

And the dancers of the Go Get Girls on podiums flanking the stage are a welcome distraction. Great fun and well worth catching if you get the chance. Their new album Alien Grace is out next month.

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It’s an old cliché that the devil has the best tunes, so if there’s any justice in the afterlife Jim Jones will be heading up the bar band in hell. Originally created as a stopgap while his most recent band, The Righteous Mind, were on hold the All Stars have been busy gathering a momentum of their own.

Alongside choice cuts from his own career the setlist plays like The History of Rock According to Jim Jones – among the many covers we get gems from The Cramps (Human Fly), Velvet Underground (Run, Run, Run), Little Richard (Slippin’ and Slidin’) and The Beatles (Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey).

And it’s all played in the band’s signature greasy garage-rock and heavy-funk sound. As with all the best rock’n’roll, there’s a brooding sense that danger is never far from the surface. Recent single, It’s Your Voodoo Working practically oozes its way out of the speakers and around the room.

The band headlined the first Punk’n’Roll summer party in the open air on South Parade Pier back in July, and great as that was, it’s much more apt to see them where they belong – blasting out the tunes in a darkened venue with the nine members (including three saxophone players!) crammed on to the stage. It’s a pleasure too to hear older Jim Jones Revue tracks like set opener, the apocalyptically grinding Cement Mixer, Dishonest John and Burning Your House Down again, as well as The Righteous Mind’s wickedly sleazy Satan’s Got His Heart Set on You.

Jones himself is a commanding, charismatic ringleader, with his band clearly well-drilled. They pull off that impressive trick of appearing to teeter on the edge of chaos while managing to turn on a dime when the song demands.

Having seen him front various bands over the years, the All Stars also is the first where Jones has allowed himself to carry over songs from those previous acts. It’s a crowd-pleasing move and dare I say it, it looks like Jones is having a lot of fun up there too.

If the band can capture a fraction of their stage presence on their forthcoming debut album, it’s going to be a winner.