Jet Live in Melbourne - Concert Review with Photos!
All Photos By Stephen Boxshall
By Darcey Mitchell
Monday night at the forum theatre saw the triumphant return of JET to their home city of Melbourne on their Get Re-Born Tour
After announcing the bands dissolvement in 2012, loyal fans have been rewarded for keeping the light burning by JET coming back together to perform their debut, and biggest hit, in full.
Before the night began, however, JET played a secret 40-minute acoustic set to fifty odd fans that had queued up early; from the exalting reviews; I knew we were in for an excellent night and I was not disappointed.
A. Swayze and The Ghosts opened the evening with their distinctive take on mid-2000’s Australian indie rock with a good dash of punk influence thrown in. In fact, A. Swayze and the ghosts are one of the most noteworthy bands that have formed and risen to fill the void in the Australian music scene left by JET. Loud with screaming guitars and hard-hitting drums, they easily warmed up the crowd getting them clapping along at certain points and frontman Anthony Swayze joining the audience towards the end of the set with his tambourine in tow. A. Swayze and The Ghosts continue to be an exciting and immensely enjoyable live act that is worthwhile seeing. Definitely, a band to watch.
Soon after, an overwhelming atmosphere of anticipation descended over the theatre, fans piling in from outside till it was so packed you could hardly breathe. The shouts and cheers when JET walked on stage were almost deafening. For most of these fans it’s been at least 8 years since they would have seen them, or for a few like myself, we were still too young when the band made their untimely exist to have ever seen them live at their peak.
The band immediately threw themselves into ‘Last Chance’, a brief warm-up before their biggest hit and second song on the album ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ screamed over the speakers, the band and audience rocking out as if Get Born was only released a month ago and this was still 2003.
JET was clearly enjoying themselves and whatever issues led to the band splitting were clearly water under the bridge with Nic Cester joking around with bassist Mark Wilson at multiple points of the evening. Singer Nic Cester had to deal with some of the awkwardness of all your songs becoming anthems in their own way, requesting to the audience “Let me do the singing guys” when the audience jumped the gun on singing along to ‘Look What You’ve Done’, making him miss his cue.
The exceptional debut album was played in order, the audience continuing to mosh in some of the albums quieter tracks ‘Radio Song’ and ‘Come Around Again’ much to the band's amusement. ‘Cold Hard Bitch’ got the audience dancing and singing along so hard that you could almost feel the Forums foundations shake.
There can be issues with playing an album in full; the track listing may not transfer to a live setlist well and continuing to capture the audience's attention after the main act can be tough. How do you keep it going if the majority of your hits have already been played? Yet JET deftly avoided both. The original Get Born album is such a tight piece of music that playing was no issue and by rounding out the setlist with ‘She’s a Genius’ and ‘Seventeen’ we were reminded just why they were one of the most successful rock bands of the 2000’s.
The encore began with an acoustic rendition of ‘Shine On’, a few lighters even making their way into the air for it. The band then joined Nic Cester on stage once more for triumphant renditions of ‘Bring it on Back’ and ‘Rip it Up’, closing the night on a screaming high.
In the end, JET reminded us all why they were rock gods they became, how much we’ve missed them since they left and just how good they are as a live act.
Tickets for tonight’s show at the Forum Theatre are still available and I for one heartily recommend taking the chance to see this victorious return to form.
Darcey Mitchell.