Monday 28/10/02 The Beatings, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion @ Academy 2, Liverpool

With a raft of "cool" support slots (The Libertines, The Pattern) under their skinny little belts, a headline tour with "cool" upstarts like Kinesis in tow and a recent appearance for lead shrieker Nick Pankhurst in the NME "Cool" List, its fair to say that The Beatings have grabbed the zeitgeist firmly by the bollocks. And on tonight's evidence they're quite brazenly not going to loosen that grip, coz from the first note through to the pummelling finale of 'Jailhouse' there's a real intent to The Beatings performance.

Not helped for the first couple of songs by a muddy sound, that only serves to render their own spin on the fuzzy garage rock template a tad messy and indistinguishable, when the sound eventually clicks to the beautiful racket being belted out by these East Londoners it all finally makes sense. Where once there was a suspicion that The Beatings were merely a token British offering to the new rock n' roll revolution, this leaner, tighter outfit before us tonight well and truly rock like a bastard. Which is always what they intended to do, despite the style mag's attempt to read something into it that just ain't there. Currently recording their debut album with Kevin "My Bloody Valentine" Shields, the combination of the belligerent perfectionist and the snarling beast that is The Beatings should make for something pretty special.

Forget your Howlin Pele of The Hives coz here comes the original rock n' roll preacher Jon Spencer. Trussed up in skin tight leather pants spitting out dirty blues riffs like his life depends on it - with long time sidekicks Judah and Russell Simmons by his side - it's a welcome return for these forefathers of all things dirty, soulful and god damn rock n' roll.

Always maintaining a loyal fan base, its perhaps a surprise that The Blue Explosion haven't fully jumped aboard the blues revivalist bandwagon in terms of popularity, what with the rise and rise of The White Stripes. Because from the knowing nods to the Blues demi-gods, through to Chuck Berry and Exile on Main Street Rolling Stones all encased in a beat laden, low down garage rock shell, the requisite influences are still in place that could make Messrs. Spencer and Co new hero's in these "cool" self referencing times. From past offerings, the intensely catchy 'Two Kindsa Love' is delivered with that trademark self righteous **** you attitude, all quivering vocals like Elvis on speed, whilst 'Sweat' - taken from the groundbreaking 'Orange' - remains as potent a rock n' roll call to arms as any over the last 20 years. But there's also evidence tonight of a more mature song based approach, with cuts taken from 2002's 'Plastic Fang', a tight n' soulful 'She Said' being particularly guilty of parking up in your brain for the next 48 hours.

And it's perhaps a little bit more of this "focus" that JSBE need in order to ram themselves firmly into the popular conscience. For all the masterful hopping, the ducking in and diving out from one snapshot of a song to the next, after a while it all unfortunately segues into a big lolloping blues jam. Which would be nice for 30 minutes but for over an hour? So the JSBE, like the immortal Robert Johnson, find themselves at the crossroads. Straight ahead, with a bit of tweaking and fine honing, it won't be long before JSBE are wooing 50,000 at Glasto with a spirited brew of more song based material and their trademark soul/blues/punk noise. Left or right could mean continuing cult status, ploughing the successful furrow that has reaped them considerable credibility kudos over the years with little widespread popularity. But whichever way they turn, the JSBE are here to stay and the world will continue to be a better place for it.

Photos by Andy Day