Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
at the Middle East Cafe
by Lex Marburger
photo by Chris Johnson
“Blues Explosion!”
The raw sound of Jon Spencer‘s voice is enough to give me a hard on. Unabashedly self-referencing, the Blues Explosion is one of the rawest forms of soul to appear in this decade. The whole crowd was moving, dancing, and swaying to the music that poured from the speakers. I couldn’t see a single person let down by the live show. Jon Spencer is the purest conduit of force I have ever experienced. He wouldn’t stop. Every song was simply the introduction to the next. He ran us ragged, piling the sounds up until the other guitar player started screaming through his harmonica. Then Jon stepped back onto the secret distortion pedal.
“Blues Explosion!”
The amp screamed in mortal agony, belching out notes that came from another planet, as Jon leapt into the air, face a rictus of honesty, integrity, and power. The sounds became tangible, almost visible in scarlet, navy, teal, and pure white. They tore at my ears, demanding access to my brain, insisting I submit to the stunning force unbelievably created by one guitar. The notes became life, my entire existence. I was caught in the music, and Jon Spencer knew it.
“Blues Explosion!”
He sang, and my eyes could not leave him. He wasn’t just singing, he was grabbing his ribcage and tearing himself open. Nothing was false, nothing was hidden, he showed us his soul. His rough voice caressed me like a cat’s tongue, licking at my chest, sending chills down my spine. I felt faint, my brain overloading from so much raw spirit, undistilled like moonshine from Arkansas. My knees shook, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to take much more of the music without convulsing in ecstasy.
“Blues Explosion!”
Breakthrough. I had risen above the world, carried by the turbulent waters of the Explosion, above the crowd, above my petty life and very existence. The waterfall was falling up, and I with it, feeling closer to Jon than anyone else I had ever known. I could feel his music coursing through my body, merging with the buzzing of electrons in my atoms, making me be the music. Then it stopped. He left the stage. I came back to earth, and realized I had just witnessed the greatest show of my life. On my way out, I bought a bumper sticker. It only had two words on it:
“Blues Explosion!”
