Jetplane Landing

Tonight, hosted by Gravity Records and being the penultimate date on Jetplane Landing’s tour, we have newbies Redshift on first, modestly claiming “we are your warm-up for the evening.” There’s nothing wrong with Redshift per se – generally beating the crap out of their instruments, Ashley can scream for Britain in that all-too-familiar ‘emo’ (spit! spit!) way when the mood requires it. Despite the samey samey nature of the songs there are times where Mr Tune rears his head, the riffs fit into place, and they gel. At the moment the only problem is that it’s all a bit generic and they don’t have a ‘Used For Glue’.

DiS then braves the raucous noize-rock of Paper Cuts. Any band fronted by Ross Cummins is frankly going to be one to watch, and he’s a right bastard to photograph too. Stay still for just a few seconds, please! Unfortunately their set’s marred by bad sound; the big sludgy, dirty, punk rock mess only really coming together for the last two songs. But fuck me, they’re entertaining. I’m sure I never enjoyed Symposium this much.

The gig, however, is ALL about Jetplane Landing. The band have been busy making their mark on the scene, following the American DIY route of releasing their own records, other people’s records, and touring their asses off to play to any city, town or obscure village that’ll have them. But somehow, just somehow, this is the year they’ve hit their stride, and who would’ve thought the Peel would be the venue to do it in? With only one song from the debut album played (‘This Is Not Revolution Rock’), it doesn’t matter – JPL have moved on, rocking harder, tighter, and more tuneful than ever.

Guitarist Cahir has turned into some kind of rock god. It’s hard even to imagine they were once a complete band without him, with him here now beefing up the sound, yelping his backing vocals and, well, generally looking extremely COOL. Singer Andrew Ferris has lost the nasal twang of their early work, barking out his lines, and letting the crowd do the same. This is what shouty choruses were made for. “I – OPT – OUT!”

Ferris even looks close to tears come the end of the set, making an emotional speech to the fans who’ve crammed in. And while this may be an on-going thing on-the-road for them, there isn’t a hint of fakeness or irony about it. Tonight, they are all that is GREAT about music. Tonight, they move up the ladder from being a Good Rock Band to being Potentially Someone’s Favourite Band. They made me want to start my own label again. They made me wish I had the patience and guts to start my own band (be afraid). They made me want to hug random strangers. And all this is why Jetplane Landing mean EVERYTHING and 2004 is theirs for the taking.