All For One 30th Anniversary
With Mason LLoyd
Thursday 07 July 2022 at The Gov
Review – Geoff Jenke
Photos – Robert McArthur
The Screaming Jets hailed from Newcastle around 1989 and released their first album, All for One in April 1991. Lead singer, now regarded as a local Adelaide boy, Dave Gleeson commented at the start of the show, in reference to the album, “30 years, well 31 years, whatever…”
Hitting the stage, quite appropriately, to the tune of Thin Lizzy’s Boys are Back in Town, the smile of Dave’s face couldn’t be bigger. This was the first time in three years the Jets had played as a unit. Half way through the opening number, C’Mon the opening song off the All for One album, Dave was already rolling around on the stage.
No Point up next and it became obvious they were playing the album in order. The opening stains of Better had the audience in a frenzy, a song that would probably usually be played at the end of the set or in the encore.
Dave engaged us with some tales about being a young band starting out “I thought I was the first person to say “Fuckin Rock On”, on stage. It so good when you start out”. A “can we play the blues” comment started Shine On with some lovely licks from guitarists Jimi Hocking and Scott Kingman.
Stop the World was dedicated to Patsy Cline “because she was the first person to say it” and a dramatic Blue Sashes dedicated to “our Vets. We love them”
Dave, with an even bigger smile on his face, looked out into the packed Gov and asked “Who has been following the track listing? Who is ready to swear?”. This led to a full-on Gov sing-a-long of F.R.C. Don’t know the track? Look it up, I am not going into details here. Needless to say, the crowd sang with enthusiasm.
Got It and The Only One ended the first part of the evening, but the band played on.
And from then on it was just wall to wall Power rock done Screaming Jets style. Automatic Cowboy kicked off the second half of the evening followed by Helping Hand and Dreaming On. But it was the BIG hits that mattered to the already pumped audience. It is surprising that with such an arsenal of original songs, it is the covers that were the biggest hits (other than Better.) The Jets final two songs were cover versions. Shivers written by Boys Next Door songwriter, Rowland S Howard, is an Australian classic recording and the band do justice to the Barry McGuire classic Eve of Destruction.
In a surprise move, the encore was yet another cover song, this time in Steve Wright’s Guitar Band (written by Vanda & Young). But it fits in according to Dave “because that is obviously what we are, a guitar band”.
Dave danced around the stage all night while wearing a leather jacket. The band were hot, so must Dave have been.
With this gig hastily arranged and a long Australian Tour to follow this gig, the Jets are already in form. A very hard-working band that play with smiles on their faces.
Checkout the dates around Australia and make sure you catch them somewhere.
Soulful singer-songwriter, Mason Lloyd, opened proceedings with a full band. Mason apparently appeared on the 2020 version of The Voice and while he didn’t win, gained a lot of positive feedback. Considering they were a very late addition and having to find a drummer 2 days out, they performed a solid set of acoustic/country/rock songs, closing with Mason’s Latest song, Free Man.
No Comments