poppedmusic

Carl Barât and The Jackals

Photo: Renny Whitehead

Sound Control, Manchester, 19th November 2014

Words: Sean Regan

Having witnessed The Libertines return to gigging earlier in the year with shows at Hyde Park and Alexander Palace, the chance to hear some of these songs along with The Jackals’ material, in a more intimate venue, was too tempting an opportunity to turn down. The Jackals are Carl’s latest project; a group of relatively unheard of musicians found online and selected via an X-Factor audition process, then assumedely put on some sort of rockstar boot camp where band members learn how to correctly eject a television from a hotel window. Given the sometimes surreal antics of his other band this probably isn’t the most unusual chapter in his music career, and from having listened to The Jackal’s debut single Glory Days a few months back, it sounds like the new band have the chops to be able to handle the back catalogue well.

So when it came to the show the crowd got faithful renditions of The Libertines and Dirty Pretty things, delivered with the blood and thunder you’d hope for from a band with something to prove. Better still you got the new material sitting alongside and fitting in seamlessly; it sounds good and will be even more enjoyable once everyone’s had time to get the new album and learn the words. Throw in a very nice acoustic version of France to balance the high tempo rock numbers and you end up with a satisfying show from both a fan of the old bands’ perspective and the person coming to check out Carl Barat &The Jackals for the first time. It was great to hear Death on the Stairs and I Get Along getting banged out in a sweaty club they way they should be, but I wont miss them too much when the band expand their own set in the coming months, as they clearly have enough going on to stand on their own merit.

Photo: Renny Whitehead

The only thing left now is to draw attention to the T-Shirt bass guitarist Adam Claxton was wearing at the show. The “I Want to Beleah” shirt is part of a campaign the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have started to raise money to support their drummer Leah Shapiro, who is having to undergo brain surgery and a long period of recovery due to a condition known as Chiari Malformations. BRMC are selling the t-shirts online, they’re cool as fuck and so is anybody who wears one and it was great to see such support at such a show as this.