Live Review: Jebediah, Bodyjar

When Jebediah kicked off their Twenty tour in Sydney last night (the first date of an almost totally sold-out tour), far from feeling like a dusty gimmick the bittersweet notion of paying tribute to our youth with a Jebs show felt totally natural. Kevin Mitchell’s mewling, nasally vocals have always sounded like summer (Leaving Home came in at ten and Military Strongman at 33 in the Hottest 100 that year, 1997, so summer was their time to shine), and tonight familiar sunny hooks and choruses helped us shrug off the cold weather.

Bodyjar belted out a crunchy set to a frothy and responsive crowd. There was a charge in the air, both on stage and in front of it. It was never going to get out of hand (although Royal Headache’s recent show suggests anything is possible), but with all three bars doing a steady trade and the place full of punters before the support had even finished (when does that happen?) the vibes were positive and cohesive. They played their cult classic Hazy Shade Of Winter cover with plenty of guts and capped the set off with One In A Million.

Jebediah weren’t coming back without a game plan. The shows are being cut in two, with the front half populated with singles and favourites across several albums, while the second half is entirely devoted to playing Slightly Odway in full. The “legacy album playback” model is a winner, especially with an album full of relentless earworms like Leaving Home and Jerks Of Attention. Mitchell’s vocals were a bit rough (they were never super great, let’s be honest), and the mix didn’t feel loud enough, but the band maintained an impressive balance of shambolic energy and breezy professionalism that naturally comes from playing together (controversy-free) for 20 years. They really responded to the crowd, and with such palpable enthusiasm being swapped around you can see why it’s tempting for legacy bands to do the whole “comeback/anniversary show” thing. This bodes really well for the tour.