So, what have I done tonight? Well I went to see a band called Jesu - I've gone on about them before, but in case you weren't concentrating they are the new band from Justin Broadrick, aka JK Flesh, who has been responsible for some of my favourite music of all time.



Nearly didn't make it thanks to Southwest trains deciding to reroute my train through Staines, making a 25 minute journey last a fun filled hour and a half. If a guard had asked for my ticket I'm pretty sure I would have ripped the fucker's heart out ala that mad priest bloke in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - as you may guess, I was a little bit concerned at arriving late, especially as Jesu were on first.



Luckily I arrived to find the band still setting up so I won't be starting any sort of terrorist operation against any train companies - yet! Anyway I got myself a pint and settled down at my now traditional vantage at the back of the venue (far too old for mosh pit action!).



Quite suprised to find the place packed, especially since the only evidence of any Jesu material that I know of consists of 2 low bitrate real audio files on there website. Obviously other people were looking forward to hearing there music as much as me, kind of wish I could meet someone around here who was so open minded, but hey ho...



The setup consisted of a table with a laptop and a few other electronic bits and pieces, Mr Broadrick on guitar and vocals and another chap who I believe was the bass player of Cable Regime (*sigh* never mind...) on bass. They started with some low bass rumbling and chanting before the guitar started to kick in; took me a while to realise as they play very very sloooooow but the first song was a Godflesh (again: *sigh* nevermind...) cover! Specifically a version of a pretty rare song called Messiah (mine came on a recordable CD, but I believe it got re-released properly at some point). At this point the proverbial shit eating smile spread across my face! Unfortunatly things started going a bit wrong towards the end of this song when an effects unit was pulled off the table by some over enthusiastic guitar playing. This lead to a few technical problems which lead to the second song being aborted, clearly some nerves were beginning to creep in.



They managed a couple of other tunes before calling it a day, it may not sound much but it was enough to get an idea of how they sound. Basically: mournfully slow riffs using fantastically heavy layered guitars and electronics are the order of the day, what lyrics I did catch were suitably self deprecating - all in all enough to get me excited about the forthcoming Heart Ache EP (as a connoisseur of sad songs I've got to love that name!).



Pictures of Jesu doing there thing are over here.