JOE JACKSON @ Metropolis

By Rebecca Munro - Charts & Crafts - 04/02/2008

Montreal: Chances are if you were not a huge fan of Joe Jackson before his show started last night, you were at the end. Jackson put on a stellar show at the Metropolis to a crowd of well, grown up ‘80s kids.

Right off the bat, it felt as if you stepped into a time warp and went back to the ‘80s with his first song of the night, “Stepping Out,” from his 1982 album, Night and Day. His look and voice still sound like they did back then. The only thing that has changed is his hair colour from blonde to white.

Jackson played his grand piano all night and throughout, he gracefully tinkled the keys as if they were an extension of him. It was easy to see that he is more than a musician; he is definitely a maestro. Often he was seen queuing the drummer, Dave Houghton and bassist, Graham Maby, as well as giving them shit for, what seemed, throwing him off.

“It’s good to be here. It has been a really, really, really long time since I have been in Montreal,” said Jackson. He often addressed the crowd during his performance. Sometimes with some witty banter and at other times, he was quite cocky. He actually stopped one song when someone whistled loudly and asked “Would you like me to play something else?” He spoke French at times, but stopped a quarter way through, saying “I am not going to speak French, fuck it, I have tried to in the past here, but nobody seemed to appreciate it,” which sent the crowd into “come-on’s” and “allez’s.”

The list of songs played were from all decades of his career. He mentioned that because of their large repertoire of songs they sometimes liked to do covers -- which they did and did amazingly well, such as their cover of Abba’s 1976 song “Knowing Me, Knowing You” mid-way through the performance.

In all, his performance lasted an hour and a half with three encore songs, one being his most well-known, “Is She Really Going Out With Him,” from the 1979 Look Sharp album, which brought a good portion of the crowd right to the stage.

It was plain to see why there has been so much controversy in terms of what genre of music Joe Jackson belongs to, but in all it doesn’t really matter. He manages to suck you right in, regardless of the type of music he plays.

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