After having waited 4 years to see one of my favourite bands live, I tried to suppress my excitement as I walked out of Old Street station, following the don’t get your hopes up when you meet your heroes mentality. Thankfully, JEFF The Brotherhood exceeded my expectations.
Walking into the bar, I saw a hippie-type, beer-in-hand, endowed with flowing locks, a paint brush moustache, and one of his many beautiful vests. This enigmatic figure was Jake Orall, singer and guitarist of JEFF. In an attempt to kill time before the gig started, I ended up having a rather confusing conversation with the bar manager – who seemed to think I was part of the band – and a metalhead who had flown all the way from Argentina just for this show. Talk about not getting your hopes up!
I wolfed down a fiery pizza, and waited for time to bleed on.
With the help of two support bands to build up a beautiful anticipation, JEFF demanded the attention of the audience, introducing themselves with a cacophony of guitar feedback, then launching into a powerful rendition of ‘Hey Friend’. They established a connection which was both immediate and palpable, epitomised by the bassist repeatedly passing his whisky into the crowd. The tightly-packed, small venue (Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen), and even smaller stage, certainly helped cement this common good-feeling and intense energy.
Although JEFF are most famous for being a power duo, their four-person lineup packed a punch, and allowed them to play oldies, such as ‘Mellow Out’ and ‘Heavy Krishna’, alongside a selection from their latest album, Wasted on the Dream. The vocals were somewhat quiet in the mix, however, this was compensated for by the audience singing along with most songs – chiming in with such catchy choruses as, “There’s another piece of glass in my teeth / Feel like everybody’s laughing at me / Make me wanna put a knife in your eye / Black cherry pie”.
The gig got increasingly raucous as the night wore on, but the band’s musical performance kept up, to the extent that I was so captivated that I hardly noticed the friendly elbows to the face that accompanied my position on the outskirts of the mosh pit. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. As the set continued, the songs lengthened, and ever-more experimental guitar solos emerged, which culminated in Jake shoving his guitar into my face, encouraging me to join in. I misread this situation somewhat, and thought he wanted me to pass the guitar around, so that it could have some fun crowd-surfing (in hindsight, I have no idea how I made such a colossal faux pas). My mistake was quickly shown up by the avid Argentinian next to me grabbing the guitar and playing with his teeth, Hendrix style.
After this intense crescendo, they slowed it down with their final song: a cover of Beck’s ‘Totally Confused’ , which appears on their 2014 EP, Dig the Classics. For me, this is not one of their most accessible songs, but the crowd resounded at their loudest, chanting in that semi-aggressive slurring of words which emanates from British crowds after a few too many beers collectively.
Leaving the stage triumphantly, JTB left the audience wanting more, in that most memorable of music-induced bacchanals…
Click here to see Patrick Gunning’s photographs from the gig.
Words by Benjamin Caven-Roberts