Reviews

This year has already seen a good number of albums released onto the local music scene and tonight it was time for yet another to have its official launch party as Thee Jenerators hit the stage at The White Hart.

Steve and Mark.

Things took a while to get going for the garage/soul rockers, but once they did, and once front man Mark Le Gallez had rearranged the furniture to make more room for people to dance, the band and audience really got into the swing of things.

As ever, once they got in gear, Thee Jenerators were a high-octane machine of garage rock, which was really typified by Mark Le Gallez who was in constant motion for the hour and a half plus the band were on stage jumping from drum kit to stage to table, rolling on the floor and dancing both amongst his band mates and the crowd.

As with Teaspoonriverneck's album launch a few weeks ago the band proved that they never stop as tonight was the Guernsey debut of several new songs, which continued to show how Thee Jenerators sound is developing in many directions.

Sax-machines Henry and Garrick.

These ranged from the punk rock feel of 'Tina Is A Moron', tonight dedicated to new young punks Beetlejuice, to an old school rock 'n' roll style number sung by guitarist Steve Lynch to a few more ska infused tracks.

But, while these new songs stood well with the rest of the material, tonight was about celebrating the launch of 'The Kids Are… Not Alright' which Thee Jenerators did by playing every track from the record and demonstrating what a versatile band they are with mod, punk, rockabilly and psychobilly elements all coming to the fore and getting the packed bar dancing.

Steve and the Gretsch.

This is really down to the bands excellent musicianship which was even more noticeable than usual tonight thanks to surprisingly clear sound considering the small venue.

This included Steve Lynch's Gretsch guitar bringing to life a real rock 'n' roll and rockabilly vibe with Nick Dodd's bass adding to the rockabilly feel and Garrick Jones' and Henry Castledine's saxophones really adding a dance vibe over the top.

As ever this was all backed up by the pounding and rolling rhythms of Ozzy Austin's drumming which bring to mind the late great Keith Moon.

Mark Le Gallez.

What struck me most tonight was the crowd's reaction to the band as a vast cross section of local society was in attendance and, as far as I could tell, no one had a bad word to say by the end of the set, which came after an uncountable number of encores including replays of many of the bands new album tracks and a blasting run of old favourite 'French Disco' featuring Rachel of Remainder 3 on vocals.

With this gig Thee Jenerators rounded off an historic week for themselves with a review in the national press, being selected for the Mojo play list and then this hugely successful show to which words really cannot do justice as they displayed just what soul and feeling basic rock music can produce in the right environment.