Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; We Are Hexed @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; We Are Hexed
@ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY - July 18, 2013

I had it all planned it out for weeks, months even. I was getting hitched sometime around now. What better way to throw myself a bachelor party of 1 then stop off at BAM for a Cassavetes festival screening of Husbands before going to see (finally) the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on a work night. Foolproof! Well it all fell apart faster than a fasting monk at a cheap buffet. First the landlady offered to get out of town for the summer if I married the daughter on the spot so there went that plan. Then after deciding I'm still taking myself out for all this, I discover at the last mintue I had the wrong date for the movie. So Minnie & Moskowitz it was. Armed with my copy of Finnegans Wake for mental exercises and fueled by food and rum from the best restaurant in Brooklyn - Madiba, on Mandela's birthday no less (where a French filmmaker was proving every stereotype in the book, ordering plain beans off the menu, and wanting a small room built on the spot just for him) - I took in the show at the cinema ("Hello Mom? This is Seymour Moskowitz. Jewish. Not too religious.") then hightailed it to the concert.

We Are Hexed alternated between muddy sludge and all-out assaults. The assaults were fun.

BLUES EXPLOSION! I really truly thought it was a jokey exaggeration. That Jon Spencer says "Blues Explosion" every few words. BLUES EXPLOSION! It's no joke. He really does it. Occasionally he'll do a long build up of swagger talk to say "the Blues are #1" but for the most part it's simply "Blues Explosion". Keeping in mind the point of this is garage-punk discordant/melodic mixed rock n roll fronted by spoken-word poetry-cum-actual-singing, it makes sense. In fact, it might feel to some like a Joyce story adapted for visuals by Jarmusch. To some.  BLUES EXPLOSION! Even on some of the poppier rock n roll like the new cut "Bag of Bones" or the new but old sounding mostly-instrumental "Get Your Pants Off", there is a slight tinge of the unhinged in all the right ways. BLUES EXPLOSION!  Mention should be made of the psychedelic light show of sorts in the background but even with the spaced out minor-jams and mild trippyness afoot, this is really a nasty old rock n roll show. Also these a role models. Chew on that for a minute, will ya? Role Models. BLUES EXPLOSION!