Jon Spencer
The Dome, London
★★★★★

BLUES-TINGED guitar, raucous rock and roll, drums that sound a call to arms and a bass that make you shake: New York blues and noise maestro Jon Spencer is taking his new album, Songs Of Personal Loss And Protest, out on the road — and what a riot it is.

Having come of age in an era rocked by Reagan for all the wrong reasons, Spencer’s 40-odd year career based on primal rock ‘n’ roll has been honed to perfection.

A stalwart of the 1980s New York noise scene — with an integral role in such seminal bands as Pussy Galore, Boss Hogg and then the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Spencer’s garage rock hits all the right notes over this 90-minute set.

Stand out tunes such as Bell Bottoms and Orange Slice Blues are well received, as is last year’s very timely single Come On! with its call out of not just musical champions like Sly Stone, Little Richard, Kathleen Hanna and Chuck D, but its paean to challenging the current US autocratic authorities and the rise of disinformation, subjugation and outright provocation.

It reeks of the MC5 and Kick Out The Jams, but this time the counter culture is trying to preserve the status quo of peace, equal rights and all that made America great, and railing against the current regime that is rapidly reducing people’s rights.

Musically this is blues-driven, old school rock and roll with a proper New York punk edge. Kendall Wind on bass is mesmerising, while her fellow bandmate from The Bobby Lees – Macky “Spider” Bowman — drums like a dynamo waving sticks a plenty.

And stage left is Spencer, guitar player extraordinaire, preacher, bluesman, bringing the room into his thrall, practicing what he preaches. His lyrics cite the power of the people and the power of music, and they combine to create a whirlwind call for change, and if the energy in the room is replicated in the real world then change is going to come. And it’s about time too.

Songs of Personal Loss and Protest is released June 12 by Bronze Rat Records.