Review: Jane N' the Jungle deliver electric, cathartic show
Rising band led by dynamic singer Jordan White
HARK!
I hear…the wail of the Nineties…
On a night lit by a pinkish supermoon, with the temperature in the Valley still clinging to 110 even after the sun melted into the horizon, I took the Indian School Road exit and rolled into the Rebel Lounge parking lot.
Ninety minutes later, after seeing Jane N’ the Jungle for the first time, all I can say is: What a pile of Garbage!
Seriously–throw ‘em in a Hole!
And I mean that in the most flattering way….
Allow me to explain.
Let’s go back 30 years, shall we?
Three decades ago, drummer/producer Butch Vig, a few years after producing the Nirvana generation-defining Nevermind, was looking to start a new band that didn’t “sound like garbage.” He wanted a powerful female singer, a la Siouxsie Sioux. And he found one in Shirley Manson, a singer from Scotland.
With Vig’s musical knowledge and Manson’s vocals, Garbage was soon pumping out grunge/alternative hits like Stupid Girl and Only Happy When it Rains. (Here’s a clip of Manson belting Stupid Girl in 1996.)
Right around that time, Courtney Love and her band, Hole, were writing songs while “holed up” in Carnation, a little town outside Seattle that Love shared with Kurt Cobain; the songs, which much debate over how much Cobain contributed, became Live Through This–which in my humble opinion destroys Nevermind and everything else from the Nineties.
OK, back to the night of June 13, 2022: Jane N’ the Jungle plugs into the Rebel Lounge speakers, tunes up and launches into 10 powerful songs– with razor-sharp musicians revolving around the gravitational pull of Jordan White, shining like a strawberry moon.
White has sworn her allegiance to Manson/Garbage, but it becomes obvious she leapfrogs to Siouxsie Sioux. Even so, she has her own style, vocally and physically–combining with her band’s skilled musicianship to make Jane N’ the Jungle poised to break out of the Valley….
At the Rebel Lounge, White was a mosh of glam and grunge, with a kitty kat hairdo, a glittery mask of makeup, skintight pants and a cut-off top showing her ripped six-pack midriff.
The music is swirling and loud, with longtime members Brian Dellis ripping away at a V guitar (band photos above and below by Noah Shepard)…..
the massively-bearded Bryan “Big B” Dague putting down thundering bass….
–and sit-in drummer Davis Carpenter bashing out beats.
Yet it’s never a strain to hear White, who rises above the soundwaves to HOWL out her lyrics, pouring her soul into each song.
Though Jane N’ the Jungle hadn’t played a hometown show since November, they have been playing regularly at the legendary Viper Room in Hollywood.
The set (click here to view and listen to the HARK Valley live video) started with the band’s new single Dirty Dog–a deep, darkly-rooted, according to the band’s website, “in which Jordan recounts her experience being sexually assaulted and ‘felt so gross and so small...like a dirty dog.’”
Victoriously, White whipped through the song with no fear, more toughened than vulnerable; indeed, her microphone holder looks like a set of brass knuckles.
Wailing several songs from the band’s new EP, White often pushed to the front of the stage, standing on speakers like a ship figurehead–all the more laying her raw lyrics at the crowd’s feet.
The show peaked on another new song, Ocean Creatures, with White grousing:
you lift me up
Just to break me down…
…then scream-singing a word that rang through the club:
ANGELLLLLLLLLS
Her howling channeled the 1990s-era existential moans of Hole (here’s the band playing live in October 1994, just a few months after Cobain’s death); say what you will about Courtney Love as a person–her band was dynamic and emotionally on fire.
After Ocean Creatures, White modestly thanked the crowd for its thundering applause, adding, “It’s been so long–feels good to be home.”
Indeed, she seems right at home on a stage in front of hungry ears.
It’s easy to believe her, when she bellows:
The world cries
‘Did you get
What you wanted?’
Pick your favorite adjective:
-Theatric
-Dramatic
-Cathartic
She’s all that, and more…
The show ended, appropriately enough, with another new song: Life of the Party.
She sure is.
As the band evolves and plays longer shows, hopefully, Jane N’ the Jungle will add some change-of-pace; an acoustic song or two would be great to flip the mood. (Wishlist: a cover of Hole’s Miss World or Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979..)
For now, Jane N’ the Jungle is simply charging ahead with a full-speed approach, pouring muscle and rage into every song.
Jane N’ the Jungle links: