Gig review: Jamie T

JAMIE T first emerged as the likely lad among a group of lo-fi but fast and furious London troubadours, including Kate Nash and Jack Penate, who popped up in the wake of The Libertines, but by 2012 he was the forlorn quarry of a “where is Jamie T?” Facebook group.

Jamie T. Picture: Creative Commons

Jamie T

Barrowland, Glasgow

**

Finally this year, he has returned, more successful than ever, as a foot-on-the-monitor rocker in a truckers’ cap.

Joe Strummer is still his god, it would seem, and, while one should probably be thankful that he can comfortably sell out two nights at Barrowland by making a non-conformist racket, his set quickly became a blur of formless, shouty yet somehow chastened punkiness.

Most of the tracks rattled along with some momentum but his band lacked the bite, attitude and energy to compensate for the lack of songcraft. Sometimes, for variety, he would play a more reflective, yet equally unmelodic track. The absence of tunes was only highlighted during a braying solo stool slot and there were painful points when he could have been in danger of losing even this up-for-it crowd.

At last, a raucous chorus hook of sorts in the shape of The Man’s Machine, followed shortly afterwards by They Told Me It Rained, reminiscent of Pete Doherty’s soused insouciance but with a fraction of his charisma, and then a more tolerable encore with a certain catchy belligerence which inspired outbreaks of dancing as if no one was looking round the edges of the dancefloor.

Seen on 10.11.14