Don’t Miss Jack Name tonight at the Hi-Dive

Don’t Miss Jack Name tonight at the Hi-Dive

January 31, 2014 Off By Billy Thieme
Jack Name's "Light Show," released january 21, is some heady psychedelic stuff.

Jack Name’s “Light Show,” released january 21, is some heady psychedelic stuff.

Free this Saturday night (February 1)? Not any more, you’re not.

Time for you to get your Gary Numan-meets-Alice Cooper groove on and go see Jack Name (aka John Webster John – touring as guitarist with White Fence) – opening for Dent May – at the Hi-Dive. Seriously, this Los Angeles psych-soothsayer promises to grab anyone in the audience for his set with some heavy electronic psychedelia, all wrapped in a heady David Lynch mist – guaranteed to leave you with a somewhat uncomfortable, but warm, contact buzz.

Name’s opus, “Light Show,” released January 21, is a journey through a post-apocalyptic city being cleansed by rival gangs, narrated in a type of narcotic stupor by that world’s savior. Ambitious and psychotropic, to be sure, but that’s not the important part right now.

What’s important for you to know, as you will be experiencing name’s journey on the small Hi-Dive stage, is that, musically, this album is brilliant. It may take a listen or two, but the glam-rock-Broadway sound of this epic eats into your brain pretty quickly. On the second or third listen, I couldn’t help but imagine a Brian Eno meth head streaming down Road Warrior highways, one ear constantly wired to a never-ending playlist that includes Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Gary Numan, Alice Cooper and Rocky Horror, in an endless shuffle.

Putting Name in the driver’s seat of that imagery, it’s no wonder he might feel he’s that world’s savior. He not only speaks the language of the savage gang, but hums the music of their simultaneous salvation and destruction. How he intends to get this across to an undoubtedly mouthy buzz crowd at the Hi-Dive is challenging – but is it something you want to risk missing?

Here’s a sample of the chaos, in “Pure Terror.”

Make sure you show up early, and give this one a listen. I doubt it’ll be something you forget too soon.

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  • Billy Thieme

    Aging punk rocker with a deep of all things musical and artistic, enough to remain constantly young and perpetually mystified. Billy has journalistic dreams, but of a decidedly pastoral, Scottish nature.