Immortal Lee County Killers Ii - 100 Club, London, 15/1/2004

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 29 / 12 / 2003

intro

Immortal Lee County Killers 2 look like they could be on the run from a Deep South penitentiary. New writer Daniel Cressey watches them "create some of the most viscerally exciting and downright loud blues available" at London's 100 Club

Immortal Lee County Killers 2 could well be on the run from a Deep South penitentiary. Guitarist Chetley Weise comes onto the 100 Club’s stage looking like Tommy Lee Jones has been chasing him through a wood for the previous month. Drummer JRR Tokien has the kind of staring eyes that you don’t often see outside documentaries about death row inmates who have just failed in their last appeal to the governor. Running through their own material and several covers (notably the best version of R L Burnside’s ‘Goin’ Down South’ that I have ever heard) the Killers attitude to both the blues and to life in general is pretty clear from the set list: 'Cocaine Blackout', 'Let's Get Killed', 'The Dammed Don’t Cry'. They’re not afraid to show their influences either, acknowledging a debt to Robert Johnson and singing Leadbelly and J L Hooker covers. This isn’t traditional in any sense but it’s not that punk-rock-blues-lite stuff either. Weise and Tokien may have been raised on blues staples but their music is run through with the noisy rage of the best Clash records. Together they manage to create some of the most viscerally exciting and downright loud blues available. Immortal Lee County Killers 2 show the White Stripes what you can do with just a guitarist and a drummer, and they don’t feel the need to wear matching coloured costumes to do it. There was no pretence here, no carefully managed public image, just two blues musicians doing their level best to become immortal.

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