Blues Explosion Taps Into Vigor but Not the Soul of Its Predecessors

When the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion rose from the ashes of Spencer’s first band (noise rock outfit Pussy Galore) in 1990, it represented a whole new take on the filial bond between rock and blues. Instead of simply infusing blues into a rock premise, the New York trio deconstructed the blues, blowing it to bits and rebuilding it in its own irony-laden, post-punk image. The results swerved wantonly, mischievously, between parody and homage. Though the Blues Explosion’s current tour with veteran Mississippi bluesman R.L. Burnside in the support slot seems to indicate a more genuinely reverential attitude, the group was as wry and calculated as ever at the Palace on Friday night.

Spencer, a shimmery vision in velveteen and patent leather, unleashed a battery of tongue-in-cheek moves from James Brown-style dance steps to Elvis-like poses accompanied by a Presley-esque “thank you very much.” Yet for all the quivering, popping kinetic energy on stage, there was little heart in the music, which rarely fell into a bona fide groove. Even the rowdy finale featuring Burnside and his trio seemed more like a contrived piece of primitivist performance art (at Burnside’s expense) than a full-fledged blues jam.

Ultimately, the Blues Explosion captured the gut-level energy of the blues while shunning the spiritual undercurrent that gives that music its emotional power, making for an experience that was conceptually interesting but numbingly soulless.