The Jesus Lizard @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds – 09/01/2025

Through the snow, ice and the thick blankets of fog enveloping much of the Pennines, all roads eventually lead to the Brudenell Social Club where there is hope that the Jesus Lizard will thaw out locals and out-of-towners alike.

The Jesus Lizard are noise-rock’s holy grail. Thanks to the belligerent, three-pronged assault of Head (1990), Goat (1991) and Liar (1991), many rightly consider them the shining beacon of the genre. 2024 was a flagship year for noise-rock, and the Jesus Lizard’s first LP in 26 years, Rack, was very much the driving force behind it. Reddit subs and Facebook groups, filled with excitement following Rack’s announcement.

How it measures up to the band’s past will ultimately be determined in the live arena. Were these dizzy reactions around its release bloated or not? We’re about to find out, but first it’s local noiseniks, Care Home, who provide refuge from the bare, icy streets. The four-piece dispense something that positively warms up the bones; their brand of unadulterated noise echoing the commotion of Chat Pile, and in front of a healthy hometown crowd, it’s a confident showing from a band that will be talked about more throughout 2025.

The Jesus Lizard: Rack

It’s not long before David Yow, Duane Denison, David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly make their way onstage. From the off, Yow is full of it, proposing if anyone in the crowd “wants their dicks sucked”, and as the first note of the unhinged Puss barely rings from Denison’s guitar, the flagrantly unpredictable singer launches himself offstage into a sea of middle-aged blokes who have probably waited for this moment since Minehead’s All Tomorrow’s Parties.

It was that very moment 15-and-half-years ago that Yow hurled himself at this writer (time and time again). Instantly the lyric from Armistice Day springs to mind (“Now the pain is returning”), and I can’t help but force out a chuckle. Those days, with a bit more hair and generosity around the waistline, were for sweat and mosh pits, but tonight is for different vantage points – namely within arm’s reach of the bar where stray elbows and other people’s bodily fluids are nothing more than a distant threat. And it’s here where the beauty of the Jesus Lizard is distinguished clearer than ever.

From Yow’s muffled screams of anguish pushing against Denison’s blistering noise on Gladiator to the balls-to-wall fury of Boilermaker and the search-and-destroy mission that is Then Comes Dudley, it’s evident that there is no better noise-rock act on the planet. Why? Because no other band has David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly in it.

While Yow and Denison have gained most of the plaudits since the Jesus Lizard’s inception, the unhinged alchemy between Yow and Denison has always been offset by the equally destructive rhythm section of Sims and McNeilly. Both unassuming in their roles (Sims looks more like a stock and station agent for John Dutton than one of the best bass players in underground rock history), a fascinating synergy exists between the two. Sims, finding tiny pockets of space between McNeilly’s gale-force drumming. So thunderous and precise, no other skinsman in noise-rock can match him in something that is just as mesmerising as watching Yow prowling and spitting across the stage.

Bringing the Noise: Remembering Steve Albini

Rack enjoys a good outing this evening, with songs from it peppered throughout this 23-song assault. The black acid horrors of Hide and Seek and Moto(R) sounding every bit as dark and frightening as they are on tape. What-If? sees Denison’s one-man-army-like heroics light up the room with slow, churning riffs seemingly inspired by David Pajo. Then there’s Alex Feels Sick. In all its untethered rage, it’s something that rivals anything from the Jesus Lizard canon.

At just under 90 minutes, it’s punk and noise-rock’s equivalent to a fucking Springsteen extravaganza. Watching it from afar offers the chance to judge how fundamentally unique and singular each member of the Jesus Lizard is. It’s not all about Denison’s hell-raising riffs or Yow’s captivating stage antics. The thread runs far deeper than that, with McNeilly and Sims underpinning one of the most nefarious forces on God’s green earth. The songs from Rack, sounding every bit as potent in the live milieu, and woven through the band’s classic cuts that are delivered with added gristle and grime, it makes the Jesus Lizard as relevant as they’ve ever been in what is a night to remember.