We are but men, ROCK!!

A LIVE REVIEW
JOON, Manchester Hard Rock Cafe, 9 March 2007

Sometimes things just don’t matter. A headache. Too much booze. No money. Not enough booze. Sometimes you encounter something that is so much fun, cares like these become irrelevant and all you want to do is jump around and throw your arms skywards.

This is the case with JOON, pictured above in yet another example of our incredibly professional gig photography, a real band with real instruments who we went to watch at the weekend. They were playing at Manchester’s Hard Rock Café, which, as gig venues go, is not the most ideal. Putting bands on there is a bit like asking a rugby team to play a match in Walkabout, but they dealt with it admirably.

At first we didn’t really know what to expect. We had been told they were “a rock band”, three fearful words which brought to mind the time we spent at university watching useless sods in shit clothes not play their instruments very well.

Luckily, watching JOON is nothing like this.

They take to the stage guns blazing, efficiently and LOUDLY setting out their manifesto. True, JOON are a rock band, but they’re far from mediocre. Everything - from the tunes, to the clothes, to the hair - is cranked up to 11. If this band saw a half measure, they’d probably triple it and then give it a kicking for being a half measure in the first place. It is, quite frankly, that kind of thing.

That is not to accuse them of mindless bombast though, or a cynical Darkness-like knowingness. One thing you really take away from JOON is the sense that they genuinely love what they do. They’ve clearly spent a lot of time in the company of the records they roll out as covers tonight, and it shows in their own material as well as their persona. Their love of Free, Europe et al shines through in songs like ‘Walk Like You Don’t Care’, and they look so comfortable performing the covers you’d think they’d written them themselves.

If your 80s Power Rock Alarm has just gone off, do not fret. Fashion is not something you should worry about when faced with a band like JOON (besides, ‘Addicted To Love’ is amazing and anyone who says it isn’t is either wrong or a liar). What lies here is a fun, idiosyncratic, smile-inducing party of a band. Just let your hair down, let your guard down and give in to the power.