Gig review: JAYLER at Camden Underworld, London

Live review: Kira Mac and Jailer at Camden Underworld, London, Friday, May 10 2024

By STEVE MASCORD

WHEN was the last time you went to see a support band based on the buzz surrounding it, with absolutely no knowledge of the headliner?

Your correspondent can’t remember the last time he did it but tonight I am sitting on the tube to north London determined to not miss the 7pm stage time for Midlands teens Jayler. My wife – who can’t fathom the hurry – and I are surrounded by sour-faced commuters who had been unable to join their workmates in the springtime sun for post-work Friday drinks.

We enter the sticky Underworld, assaulted by the aroma of decades of spilt ale that’s long since soaked into the floorboards, as early as I ever have and have time for a full pint before my paramours hit the stage.

What is Jayler? I’ll sum it up in five words: Greta Van Fleet but better. If allowed six, I’d add “much”.

It’s shocking to see how young they are when they come on stage. Three 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old. How we have become conditioned to greying men who brandish their egos as eagerly as they hide their paunches.

Surely they can’t be as good as they sound on Spotify and look on YouTube, though?

The most striking early aspect of Jayler is not just the way bare chested and be-vested singer James Bartholomew fills the entire – already half-full – room with his honeyed voice. It’s how EFFORTLESSLY it occurs. Once more, we have become used in our middle age to our rock gods labouring to bedazzle us as they once did.

Bartholomew – like Josh Kiszka – does it just by opening his mouth.

The songs, such as “Acid Rain”, “No Woman”, “When You Go” and “Love Maker”, are Zeppelinesque in the extreme. But they are much simpler, catchier and more direct than GVF (I am tempted to say ‘or even Zep’ … but I won’t) and delivered with an overwhelming crispness that just zaps you.

And the stagecraft for four teenagers is simply staggering. No hand is overplayed, Bartholomew says “lovely jubbly” a couple of times and seems to have been up there for decades already. I was going to say the guitarist is showy without borrowing too heavily from anyone in particular but then I see his name is Tyler Arrowsmith. Hmm.

Bassist Ricky Hodgkiss has a bit of a Davy Crockett fashion sense going and has clearly worked out a very definitive image at an extremely tender years. Drummer Ed Evans has a ripping rock’n’roll haircut and pummels the skins consistently for this short set.

Kids today have to be so GOOD to be noticed at anything because everybody has technological aids to enhance their efforts, their presentation, their exposure. Amateurs must behave as professionals, leaving no room for amateurs who behave as amateurs.

Jayler perform … as close to perfectly as it’s possible to discern at 7.13pm on a Friday night.

And then there’s the reaction from a crowd of middle aged men and Kira Mac fans who’ve arrived early. It is spontaneous, shocked and overwhelming. At first there even seems to be a bit of bewilderment in the way the applause speeds up and evolves into cheering and hooting. Are these kids REALLY doing this? Filling the air around us with filthy guitar licks and devil-rousing vocal lines that have our body hair standing to attention?

“We’re here to play some classic rock,” says Bartholmew, who has me doing some mathematics. Of course no original classic band would announce from the stage that that is what they play. But the 1970s were 35 years before these fellas were born – so the equivalent would be me starting a band that sounded like Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller!

Read that again. Have a think about it for a second.

Now, Kira Mac? Shania Twain fronting Nickleback – and they had the place packed and jumping. It might sound terrible to you but it was reasonably entertaining. Nevertheless, we didn’t stay the distance as Falafel King next door sells London’s best kebab.

On the way out I buy a t-shirt from the guitarist’s father (Mr Arrowsmith?). He and another proud parent thank us for coming.

Until last Friday I would say the best new band I had ever seen was Airbourne, way back when in a small bar in the Valley in Brisbane. Now Bartholomew can play guitar behind his back – he did it – but Jailer aren’t quite on the same level acrobatically.

But I looked at Joel O’Keeffe that night and expected something life-changing. I looked at James Bartholomew and expected tentativeness and imitation.

So if you factor in the element of surprise and the sheer joy of discovering something pure and special, then Jayler are the best new band I have ever seen.