Johnny Foreigner – The Harley 02/10/2012
Before I start I just want to point out that at this gig I was feeling rather under the weather. It dampened my mood but never the less, I love Jofo. So high spirits were crawling through the putrid taste of vomit in my mouth. Turns out this was the perfect JoFo gig to be ill at.
As I got to the rather empty Harley, the first support took to the stage. Kimmy Yeah from Sheffield played to a rather echoey room. With very little response to go in hand. Their excitable screams reminded me a bit of Jofo with a lot of Future Of The Left thrown in for good luck. Was pretty good but a hard case of wrong time wrong place.
The tour support came in the form of PlayLounge, a two piece noise pop band they fell as a perfect warm-up for the similar stylings of JoFo… yet the room was still empty and all atmosphere was lost. I was starting to get worried at this point that the night as a whole would be a disappointment.
Five minutes until stage time and the place quickly got busier. 40, maybe 50 people filled the very front section on the room to create a bit more of an atmosphere.
I started to notice familiar faces and suddenly I remembered I wasn’t at any ordinary gig. Danananakroyd and Los Campesinos T-shirts galore the JoFo tumblr fanclub was at full capacity as per usual. Now don’t get me wrong I have nothing against any of them, I’m not a writer for the NME who wants to just pan these poor sods for liking a band of JoFos stature but I’ve grown bored of it. I used to be in with this crowd, I befriended many of these guys to travel round the country seeing a band we all love. Its just I grew out of it. I still love the band, just not that obsessive scene these guys hold so fond.
Anyway back to the point, Johnny Foreigner take to the stage playing the theme of Star Trek The Next Generation and the crowd make a murmur of noise. Theres a sense that this tour hasn’t really got a purpose except to pay bills and with their new 4th member, try some new songs out. The set consisted of new and old songs, with the JoFo classics Eyes Wide Terrified and Salt, Pepa and Spinderella getting the warm response they so fully deserve. New song Three Hearts brings everything that’s great about last years album You Vs Everything together and pads it out with that extra guitar. Very promising stuff. Techy guitar riffs ring through the room co in siding with Kelly/Lexs’ vocal harmonies/chanting gets peoples heads nodding and feet tapping. ‘You don’t remember the cracks in the dam but you’ll know when its burst’ seem like too many words for the line in which its sung but work so well.
They laugh at the prospect of going off for an encore and play through to the final two songs New Street, You Can Take It and Absolute Balance. The former reciting the lines ‘You kinda, always know when its over’ repeatedly. Unfortunately these words seem more apparent than ever. I hate to say it but at the moment it feels like the upward climb Johnny Foreigner was on late last year seems to have peaked. Earlier this year they played to a packed Harley which will go down as one of my favourite gigs of all time (not to mention my band supported, Tip Your Bartender *cough shameless advertising*) and more recently at Tramlines Festival they rammed The Frog & Parrot with a secret set. Yet this time round, the set was solid, they were musically great but the fans and atmosphere seemed ironically foreign.
Johnny Foreigner’s new EP ‘NAMES’ is released on 27th October in both digital and Pin Badge form. Three Hearts can be heard online here - http://soundcloud.com/lexkelandjun/3-hearts
3/5
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