Maybe I’ll bake you a cake, seven layers thick / Set aside the blender blades, in case you need a lick
– from “Welcome to the Other 95% of the World” by Jerry Joseph
Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons bring a kind of biting jam band rock that’s infused with ballsy swagger and tinges every molecule within earshot with the smell of metallic bits of blood escaped from veins and hard-drawn cigarettes. “While not a household name or critic’s darling,” Joseph’s the kind of musician who inspires publicity writers to shelve their tired cliches (a miracle of miracles–trust us) to instead wax poetic by penning, “[Joseph’s] an endlessly insightful rabble-rouser and back street shaman… [who] for more than 30 years [has] been strapping on a guitar and chasing down truth, understanding and soul with such tenacity and resonant skill, he’s marked as a hard charging kindred spirit of Joe Strummer, Warren Zevon and Patti Smith… [An] archetypal musician’s musician [whose] latest chapter in his long strange journey flows like glowing quicksilver through the modern psyche; where war and disaster wrestle with hope and faith and sometimes the best option is to sashay down to the local disco to mambo with the chicks with dicks, just to remind one’s self that you’re never too old or too dead to learn a couple new tricks.” Such apropos apotheosis doesn’t stop there. Joseph’s also the kind of musician who inspires the likes of documentarian Justin Benoliel (of Ramble West) to peregrinate alongside Joseph across Southeast Asia (and soon across Hawaii Nei, too, before heading for home to the East Coast and circling back to Portland) in effort to capture Joseph’s fascinating story; to “learn of his passions, all his regrets, his secrets and his demons.” Benoliel says, “There is not one musician on this planet who has been through more or played for less… [His music] is beautiful, it is enlightening, and most of all it is honest.” (Watch the doco trailer at ramblewest.com.) Of his longtime collaborators, The Jackmormons, Joseph says, “The reason I play in this band, the reason I go through what I go through to be in this band, is there’s always a point when we’re onstage that I think, ‘Man, if there’s a better fucking three-piece rock band in America, I don’t know who they are.’” Joseph and his Jackmormon comrades–JR Ruppel (bass, backing vocals) and Steve Drizos (drums, backing vocals)–are due to play three shows at Three’s Bar & Grill this weekend, Thu., Feb. 23, Fri., Feb. 24 (with Kanekoa) and Sat., Feb. 25. (with MOTHxp) at 9pm nightly. Do yourself a favor and be there.
Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons
Thu., Feb. 23/ Fri., Feb. 24 with Kanekoa/Sat., Feb. 25 with MOTHxp; 9pm nightly; Three’s Bar & Grill (1945 S. Kihei Rd.); 879-3133; threesbarandgrill.com /
jerryjoseph.com
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