On a comfortably overcast Saturday evening, two rock bands — one sleek and shadowy, the other brash and anthemic — shared the stage at KEMBA Live!. Inside the venue’s concrete walls, Band of Skulls and Jet offered more than nostalgia. They gave a roomful of listeners a reminder of rock’s enduring duality: introspection and swagger, slow burn and sudden ignition.
Band of Skulls: Darkness, Detail, and Discipline
Opening the night with “Sweet Sour,” Band of Skulls immediately set the tone for their methodical, groove-driven set. Their sound was lean and unhurried — less a performance than a construction of moods, carefully layered and stripped of excess. Emma Richardson’s vocals moved between stoic and spectral, especially on “Bruises” and the haunting “Love Is All You Love,” while Russell Marsden’s guitar work served as both foil and foundation: jagged at times, always deliberate.
Standouts like “Himalayan” and “The Devil Takes Care of His Own” showcased the band’s knack for balancing heavy riffs with an almost architectural sense of space. By the time they closed with the slow-burning “Asleep at the Wheel,” Band of Skulls had delivered a set that never overreached — instead, it simmered with intention, refusing to explain itself.
Jet: No Frills, All Firepower
Then came Jet, making a different kind of statement — not subtle, but no less effective. Kicking off with “Last Chance,” they launched into a tightly packed, 17-song set that played like a celebration of velocity and volume. Songs like “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,” “Black Hearts (On Fire),” and “Rollover D.J.” reminded the audience why Jet’s brand of guitar rock still works: not because it surprises, but because it commits.
Nic Cester’s voice, still raw and resilient, cut cleanly through the mix, particularly on “Look What You’ve Done,” the band’s lone reflective moment in a set otherwise driven by momentum. “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and “Cold Hard Bitch” landed with the same punch they always have — not because they’ve changed, but because they haven’t tried to.
Jet’s encore — featuring “Shine On,” “Move On,” and a crowd-rousing cover of AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)” — felt less like an epilogue and more like a final, defiant thesis: this is a band that thrives on volume, clarity of purpose, and zero second-guessing.
Conclusion: Two Paths, Same Destination
There was a quiet brilliance in how these two bands complemented each other without overlapping. Band of Skulls offered density, texture, and restraint. Jet brought propulsion, sharp hooks, and unfiltered energy. Together, they traced different arcs through the same tradition — and proved that rock, when played with focus and conviction, still knows how to fill a room.
At a time dominated by digital minimalism and genre-blurring experimentation, this was a reaffirmation that rock is still here, if you know where to find it.
