Manchester Academy 2
Force of nature David Yow and band tour their superb first album in 26 years with a growling, spit-flecked fusion of pummelling songs and acerbic wit
The Jesus Lizard singer David Yow is not naked – which is probably for the best. It’s a cold night. But the frontman’s lack of nudity is pretty much the only key element missing from tonight’s ear-ringing encounter with the reunited US band, touring their late-career album Rack (2024). Clad in a black shirt and jeans, Yow prowls the stage, spitting, hollering inchoate insights into the microphone, clamping the cord between his teeth, darkly exhorting the crowd not to stop clapping. He mocks security handing out “little shot glasses of water” – Yow says it in a baby voice – “because someone might be thirsty”.
Every few songs, Yow launches himself into the audience, crowd-surfing all the way to the mixing desk. Less of a singer than a sui generis declaimer, he smears misanthropic lyrics across the grain of Duane Denison’s axle-grinder guitar and David Wm Sims’s malevolent bass. At the back, drummer Mac McNeilly keeps up a nimble, pile-driving rhythm that somehow manages to swing as well.
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