Throughout their 12-year history, Blues Explosion have, as the old proverb goes, "divided the critics". After Jon Spencer formed the band out of the ruins of Pussy Galore, they began making records that set new standards in sonic chaos. It was a short-term tactic that they've wisely abandoned, but while the combo have become a great deal more comprehensible, not everyone has been convinced by what their new-found clarity reveals.
The good news is that it's a big thumbs-up for their new album, Damage, a pumped-up deluge of blues, funk and rock'n'roll given a few tasty tweaks by some prestigious guests (eg DJ Shadow, David Holmes and Chuck D). The less good news is that all the layers, subtleties and audio jiggery-pokery that make the disc a gripping listen fly out of the window when the band take the stage, stripped down to their bald three-piece configuration.
Spencer himself is something of a mixed blessing. Tonight, his vocals were barely audible above the band's rolling noise-barrage, except during the gaps between numbers when he kept lapsing into inept parodies of Elvis Presley. So persistently did he keep blurting out "thangyou verry much, ladies'n'gennelmen" (accompanied by an assortment of pallid Elvis-in-Vegas wiggles) that you began to hope that nursing staff might dash from the wings to administer emergency electric shock treatment.
Though a hidden technician intermittently applied wacky sonic effects, like sudden booming bass explosions or vocal distortions, the performance was essentially a high-speed compilation of riffs - fast, funky ones like Help These Blues, chooglin' specimens such as Burn It Off, and sometimes some spaced-out pieces where Spencer and gunslinger-esque co-guitarist Judah Bauer erected teetering twin-guitar edifices. One of the band's oddities is that they have two guitars but no bass, though Spencer sometimes pummels the bottom strings of his guitar to add some bottom-end ballast. Maybe they need to accept the inevitable, and add a bunch of electronica and a DJ.
· At Manchester Academy tonight, Glasgow QMU on October 23, and Bristol Academy October 24.
