Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong

+ Ida Maria, Pete and the Pirates

Borderline, London - 6 Nov 2007

by Jon Fletcher

Headliners lose out to Norwegians and pirates

"This is a woman with a voice that rattles and rasps with laughter, loathing and lost love all at once"

This first show of Levi’s four back to back nights is, in the humble opinion of New Noise, a little topsy turvy. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong may boast the hair cuts and chiselled cheek bones of stars in waiting; the devoted throng may hang on every choreographed grin and practiced pose, but the music rarely lives up to the looks. In contrast, the two support acts – the charmingly loopy Ida Maria and New Noise pets Pete & The Pirates, are everything we could hope for – clever, humorous and above all, very much alive.

Ida Maria has a name that, as one wag recently put it, sounds as though it dates from the 1940s, but her music and stage show have an immediacy that fills the here and now. Plus, she’s from Norway, so we should be thankful that in Ida (said ‘eeeda’), we have a relatively manageable combination of consonants and vowels.

In fact, we’ve got a whole lot more than that. This is a woman with a voice that rattles and rasps with laughter, loathing and lost love all at once. When she softens - as in the verses of myspace highlight ‘OhMyGod’, the emotion is conveyed through a sense of imminent explosion; when she blows, it’s effervescent, like having little fireworks of euphoria going off in your belly.

On stage, the anticipation of the peaks takes over so that by the time she reaches the climax of a song she seems to boil over in an unstoppable white water rush, charging about the stage, hair flying, impossible to keep still.


Norweigan good | Ida Maria conquers Borderline
© Jon Fletcher / New Noise Ltd

Ida is followed by Pete & The Pirates, who’ve had plenty of praise from us already but tonight are probably more deserving than they’ve ever been. There’s a faint suspicion that there’s been at least a few beers downed and possibly a little more besides; certainly the inter-song chat is considerably more lively – and entertaining – than we’ve seen before. It’s matched by the usual mix of hand clap harmonies and jangling guitars. If you’ve not yet had the opportunity to acquaint yourselves with them yet, wait not a moment longer.

Against this backdrop, we can’t help but find Joe Lean a little lacklustre. The venue, well populated throughout, fills to near capacity for the headliners, but the newcomers have missed a trick. There’s angular cockney bluster aplently, but we’ve had it up to here with throwback glottelstops and treble-heavy chords and in this case, there’s a conspicuous lack of catchy tunes to go with them.

Still, hats off once again to the Levi’s Ones To Watch bookers for balancing value and vogue – these nights are rarely without a quality act and despite the corporate backing remain one of the best new music showcases around
Lovesoxxx said on November 21st 2007 [report abuse]

Did you make it to all 4 nights? Do Levis have to place a restraining order on you?

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