Jonny Rumble preview

Jonny Rumble
Metro, Chicago
Friday, July 25, 2008

Rock ‘n’ roll hasn’t kicked the bucket yet, but according to Jonny Rumble, it’s definitely seen better damn days.

“There is a man named Neil Young/He said that rock would never die/He was wrong/It’s almost there,” Rumble frontman Brian Webb says in the first line of Almost Dead‘s first song, the title track. It’s hangin’ by a thread, he insists, yet solutions are hard to come by on the 12 tracks. There’s plenty of blame, though, mostly directed at those of us (you!) buying Nickelback and Dave Matthews CDs and concert tickets.

Jonny Rumble aren’t any more content with the country as a whole, but Webb and his bandmates – Patrick O’Connor, Jeremy Pryor, and Seth Thomas – are a hell of a lot more more interested in venting (against rich pricks on “One Percent,” corporate pricks on “Bleed Out,” and bitchy pricks on “You’ve Got It Made”) than suggestions. They aren’t lame barstool whiners, though, thankfully – just good old-fashioned pissed-the-fuck off.

“It’s a finger-pointing, blame-laying manifesto,” Webb admits in Almost Dead‘s press materials. “We’re blaming ourselves as well as others for the modern state of things, socially and politically.”

“Hopefully the next record will offer some solutions.”

Solutions, smalutions.

Friday’s show is Jonny Rumble’s CD release party for Almost Dead; The Sapiens, Raised On Zenith, and Model K open.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly