The Jesus Lizard live review: noise rock legends bring raucous energy to Brudenell Social Club
As someone born after the 1980s and ‘90s alternative rock boom, I’ve spent a lot of time wishing I could’ve seen my favourite bands in their ‘prime’, playing in tiny venues when health and safety precautions were a thing of the distant future. Instead, I’ve attended my fair share of comeback gigs, watching bands race through a ‘greatest hits’ setlist 30 years on while surrounded by a crowd of middle-aged people lucky enough to have seen them when they were my age.
Some of these gigs have been admittedly lacklustre, with no moshing to be seen despite the fact that years ago, the same songs would’ve caused riots among energetic members of the pit. Sometimes, the band members look unrecognisable, having switched out Converse and baggy clothing for much more sensible attire. The Jesus Lizard, on the other hand, are a completely different story.
The band formed in the late ‘80s and released several seminal noise rock albums throughout the next decade, like Goat and Liar, both of which were produced by Steve Albini. After breaking up in 1999, the band reunited various times over the years for reunion shows, only to surprise fans in 2024 by releasing their first LP since 1998’s Blue – the acclaimed Rack. In support of the album, The Jesus Lizard are currently playing a string of dates in the United Kingdom, and their Leeds show saw them stop at Brudenell Social Club, the city’s most iconic venue.
Squeezing into the 400-capacity room for the sold-out gig, I was initially surprised that the band weren’t playing in a larger venue, like Leeds’ 02 Academy, but it soon became clear that a small venue was the only suitable set-up for the band. They revel in intimacy, evoking the atmosphere I can only imagine they created back in the early ‘90s while playing sweaty underground venues.
As soon as the band took to the stage, vocalist David Yow asked the crowd if anyone “wanted their dick sucked,” which garnered lots of cheers from the sea of bald-headed men standing in front of me. Throughout the gig, the 64-year-old proved to be possessed by an authentic punk spirit, immersing himself in the crowd for the first song before returning multiple times to crawl above eager hands, swimming across the audience like a man on a mission.
He might be decades older than the singers leading the newest wave of punk, hardcore, and noise rock bands, but he has more stamina than most, and with every song, Yow proved that if you’ve still got that restless energy inside of you, you shouldn’t let it go to waste. Throughout an hour-and-a-half-long set, Yow flaunted across the stage, unbuttoning his shirt (and, at one point, his trousers) with little regard for self-consciousness. The crowd were enthralled, with a large group in the middle of the venue relentlessly throwing and thrashing their bodies together as Yow watched over them, a surveyor of chaos.
The band delivered all of their best-known numbers, from ‘Boilermaker’ to ‘Monkey Trick’, while also weaving tracks from the new album into the set, which were received as though they were old classics. Before one song, Yow announced that it was written before “some of you were born,” while other members of the crowd were already close to “40.” Certainly, the crowd was a lot more varied, at least age-wise, than your average ‘comeback’ gig, proving the everlasting endurance of one of alternative rock’s most influential acts.
