Jealous
The Sunflower Lounge
Review by SdM
The sultry surly glamour of U.S 60’s psych-punk garage-rock descended upon The Sunflower Lounge in the form of French & Israeli band Jealous. They tore through a torrid 40 minutes set in scintillating and electrifying style.
Singer and guitarist Paz sported a pair of enviable crimson flared trousers that could have been magically transported from Woodstock ‘66. The fluted bell-bottoms rested above her all-red Cuban-heeled boots so perfectly she could have been a cartoon character in Josie and The Pussycats. Vocalist and bassist Dane wore a leopard-print cat-suit. Drummer Alice wore snake-skin print. Nice to see the animal kingdom so wonderfully represented on stage. The two front-of-stage microphone stands were each adorned with a pair of ladies’ pants. (And, yes, I mean in the English vernacular, pants. Therefore underwear – not trousers, and,er, certainly not knickers either. That’s all you need to know.) Enough said, easy tiger!
“Hi,” said Paz. “Hello,” replied a voice in the crowd. “We’re, Jealous.” continued Paz “Yeah, we are!” confirmed Dane with a coquettish smile. The low, scuzzy, growling, body-wobbling intro of ‘Gravity’ heralds the start of the show. The guitar, starting with flecks of echoing sound, breaks into heavy distortion as the feverish vocals take you to a dark hinterland.
The fabulously named ‘Slaughter House 3000’ continues the US flavoured vibe mashing those twisted surf-rock sounds with early 70’s rock and late 70’s punk. ‘Pinky’ mixes sweet and sour vocals over a twisted staccato guitar melody, while the fast-beat ‘Cowboy “Kelly” Catastrophe’ screams with a glint-in-the-eye fury. Keeping with the girl-name theme, ‘Debbie’ bounds at a hefty pace – Alice thumped those drums and cymbals with unbridled ferocity.
The tunes are mostly dark and grungy affairs but Jealous were clearly enjoying themselves and up for having fun. Paz had minor guitar issues and was taking time to tune-up. “You tuning babe?” enquired, Dane. “Yeah, working on it, working on it.” came Paz’s keen yet relaxed reply. Tuned up and ready to go Dane started ‘K-Hole’ with an over-hand bottle-neck slide on her bass adding an ominous Blues to the bone-rattling buzz. The guitar melody was very nearly ‘Seven Nation Army’ but side-stepped just enough to get away with it.
‘Thunder’ and ‘Fast Cars’ closed the show but not before Paz and Dane jumped into the crowd swinging their guitars around wildly. Dane slid backwards in rock-god pose ending prostrate on the floor while Paz bowed Dane’s bass with her guitar like some demonic version of violin practice. Thus ended a blistering 40 minutes of rock and roll done properly. As we were leaving a roadie offered us pairs of ‘pants’, “as worn by every member of the band,” he said. Not all together, I imagine, they’d be all baggy.