By Desh Kapur, Rock At Night Manchester

O2 RITZ, MANCHESTER, UK – 16th July, 2018 – JET with Tempesst

After kicking off the “Get Re-Born Tour” in their home country of Australia to rave reviews, JET were bringing their 15 year anniversary celebration of their critically acclaimed debut album “Get Born” to the UK and the first stop was a packed-out O2 Ritz in Manchester.

“Get Born ” was the band’s first album and their most successful, producing hits such as “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”, “Rollover DJ” and “Look What You’ve Done” which led them around the world to tour with The Rolling Stones and Oasis.

But before we could get to the main event, it was up to fellow ex-pat Australians, Tempest to get the crowd warmed up and keep them entertained, and to be fair they did just that. Groove, psych, stoner rock is the best way I can describe them. Even though stoner rock is not my thing, they did it very well and the crowd seemed to really get into it and showed their appreciation with loud applause and shouts for more when they finished.

So here we were waiting for Jet. How would they look, how would they sound, would the songs still stand the test of time??? Those questions were soon answered…they looked great, they sounded great and yes, the songs still stand up.

The band were on it from the off, launching into “Last Chance”, “She’s A Genius”, “Get What You Need” and the crowd-stomping “Roll Over DJ”, the band and in particularly lead singer Nic Cester, now had the crowd in the palm of their hands. They played ” Walk” before Nic took a little time out to explain why he still looked so good…apparently it’s because he stayed away from drugs or alcohol! I’m not sure if this is true or ironic, but in fairness he did look on top form.

Then the band eased in to the anthemic indie ballad  “Look What You’ve Done” a song Nic wrote when he was 17 and it turned out to be one of the bands biggest hits. As the Jet front man sang the words, the whole of the O2 sang along with him, word for word, so much so that at certain points Nic put down his mic, stopped singing and let the crowd serenade him. Over a thousand people singing together; no wonder the band couldn’t stop grinning, it was a very beautiful thing. The songs kept coming tune after tune, hit after hit, the crowd were loving it and the band were feeding off the massive love-in vibe that was going down at the Manchester O2.

Jet played 21 songs all up, including the album Get Born in it’s entirety, but the set never dragged or felt too long, it was the noughties again and everyone was loving it.

The set included big songs like “Seventeen”, “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is”, “Cold Hard Bitch” and a beautiful acoustic version of “Shine On”, but the most memorable moment of the night was when the band played “Timothy”, a song tinged with such sadness and so personal to the band that it is rarely played live.

And, of course, when the band played “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and the place went bonkers.

After nearly 2 hours, like all good things, it had to come to an end. The crowd left happy, tired and content and as far as I could tell, likewise for the band. Jet play their own brand of 60’s inspired, Brit-Pop influenced, four on the floor rock and roll, and they do it really f&@king well; it does help when you can write really catchy songs. Jet proved tonight what an excellent band they are, live and on record and I, for one, was very impressed indeed

JET – FACEBOOK

JET – WEBSITE

TEMPESST – FACEBOOK