Hey, what the hell? The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have a tour coming up this fall, which will allow people in cities that generally have concerts (Chicago! Portland! Piittsburgh! Will experience the sweat! Of the Blues Explosion!) to enjoy the trio’s relatively recently reformed take on blues riffs and yelling. But yet, Tucson is not currently on their schedule.
This, simply, is bullshit.
I don’t know who to blame, but considering the band recorded its live album, Controversial Negro, at Club Congress and when I saw the band in Atlanta seemingly a million years ago, Spencer spent a significant amount of time yelling at the audience that Tucson was “number one,” you’d think they could take a night out of their busy lives to rock our fair city.
Well, is Tucson no longer number one? Because seeing that there are sixteen American cities that have earned a JSBX show this fall, I don’t think we can be considered any higher than number 17 these days.
It’s hurtful, Mr. Spencer and company. Just hurtful.
Here’s the group’s new song, “Black Mold,” from the album Meat And Bone, coming out Sept. 18.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2012.
Aside: Roughly one-third of the tracks on that release were recorded at an earlier (and damn amazing) show at the Downtown Performance Center.
I thought Jon Spencer died during the filming of the final season of The West Wing.
No silly, he isn’t coming here because he’s coaching the Portland Timbers.
Dylan: I had forgotten about that, but yes, the liner notes indicate that performances from two DPC shows and two at Club Congress are included. I was at one of those DPC shows, but I seem to remember it being interrupted mid-concert. My memories of 1994, while not then substance impaired, are remarkably blurry these days.