Jonas Complex
Jonas
Complex
December 29, 2005
Bills Bar
By Lucie Wicker
Good news for hard rock fans- the genre is alive and well in the Boston area.
With a plethora of punk shows any day of the week, it was refreshing to see
a relatively new band known as the Jonas Complex, the third and final act
at Bill's Bar last Thursday evening. This edgy yet sensitive, personal and
disarming four man band consists of lead singer Brig Dauber, bassist Dennis
Harris, Jamie Maguire on lead guitar and Teddy Kelliher on drums. A clearly
angst-ridden band, JC successfully manages to combine a hard rock sound with
slow and sweet melodic interludes. Although fairly unassuming in appearance
(no dark black eye makeup for these guys), JC puts on an impressive show that
will leave you with your adrenaline pumping, ears ringing and your soul strangely
touched.
On Dec 29, JC played around 11:45 following Genuflect, the Rage Against the
Machine/Limp Bizkit channeling threesome popular with the water bottle swigging
18+ crowd. This show was a follow up to the band's December 10th gig at the
Middle East where they advanced to the second round of the internationally
renowned Emergenza Festival which they will be competing in again in April.
It was also an unofficial CD release event of their brand new nine-track album,
the Nether, which was produced by Arria Records and being sold for $10 a pop.
Their set consisted of the tracks from the album plus several bonus new songs.
With Dennis and Jamie modestly hiding under baseball caps, the band's stage
presence rested heavily on Brig who thrashed around fervently with each passionately
driven song. They started off the night with "Strips of Nine," an
energetic crowd pleaser showcasing Brig's impressive vocal range and the group's
TOOL inspired sound. After a brief warm up period, Brig's ability to reach
out to the audience both physically and vocally truly gripped the crowd and
managed to arouse a (short lived) period of moshing.
After about an hour, JC closed the show with hypnotically haunting "Dune."
With the mood in the songs changing constantly JC unfailingly draws an eclectic
crowd. Hardcore fans can appreciate not only the intensity of their music
but also the fact that they are in every right a true hard rock band, not
another crew of high school buddies just emerging from jamming in their parent's
garage to stumble across a stage and claim to be the real thing. Less hard
core fans can appreciate the fact that Jonas Complex is not the kind of band
that is all screaming and no instrumental talent. With slow, euphonic lulls
leading up to raging, wrathful tangents in every song, each band member balances
out their individual wide range of musical abilities. The result is an expressive,
talented, extremely entertaining band sure to become a fixture in the Boston
area and definitely worth checking out.
For
more info in Jonas Complex, go to their official website at
www.jonascomplex.com
or their myspace page
www.myspace.com/jonascomplex
