Two bands, both currently lauded as 'next big things', on one bill equals great PR and healthy ticket sales. But while Jet and The Hiss may share some of the same influences, they both have very different ways of expressing them, which in turn means they both take very different approaches to the task of playing live.
The Hiss are straight out of the fuggy blues swamp of Georgia. Lank haired-frontman Adrian Barerra has a real, low-down'n'dirty larynx which he stretches over his band's Zeppelin-meets-Skynryd noise. Their best tracks are the singles 'Clever Kicks' and 'Back On The Radio', but live they imbue the one-dimensional sound of their debut album 'Panic Movement' with an added energy. However the fact that the biggest highlight of their set is a cover of Oasis' 'Columbia', where Barerra is joined on harmonies by Jet's Nic Cester, points to the fact that they have not yet used their influences to fuse a truly compelling sound.
Jet wear their influences brazenly, from guitarist Cameron Muncey's Flying V guitar to their melding of the riffs of prime AC/DC, Stones and Stooges via the more modern sensibilities of Nirvana and Oasis. From the opening 'Last Chance', their stall is set out - drummer Chris Cester thrashing his kit like Keith Moon, while remarkably also managing to sing, Muncey and bassist Mark Wilson banging their heads and holding their instruments aloft like a pair of drunk teenagers, and Nic Cester standing calmer at the heart of the storm, concentrating on his guitar playing and his Liam Gallagher howl.
All of the band bar Wilson take their turns on vocal duties, but it's Nic Cester who leads the line most emphatically on the likes of 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl', the Manson-meets-Beatles psychedelic waltz of 'Lazy Gun' and 'Rollover DJ''s fusion of 'Roll Over Beethoven' and 'Satisfaction'. They play the pick of debut album 'Get Born', wisely omitting the bland 'Radio Song'. Only the borderline misogynist lyrics of 'Cold Hard Bitch' grate on what is otherwise one of the best songs AC/DC never wrote.
A final thrash through Elvis' 'That's Alright Mama' says it all - this is rock'n'roll at its most unrefined but also, for the majority of the time, at its most compelling. While they'll never win any originality awards, like The Darkness, Jet take the music of their youth and restyle it in their own image to great effect with a knowing nod to their audience. Which adds up to a great way to spend an hour or so in a sweaty room.
