TURA SATANA
JACK OFF JILL
At The Troubadour
By Mark Thompson (geelaguu@aol.com)

I didn't know if I was gonna make it to the show tonight seeing as me and three friends got stuck on the canyon behind the elderly tourist driving 15 miles per hour and using turn signals around the curves. There was a line of no less than 15 cars honking and flashing their lights in anticipation of getting to the Troubadour. HELLO! Anybody home? By the time we get there it's 9:00, we grab our tickets, speak briefly to Jenn (manager of BLUPRNT), and get a nursery rhyme from JACK OFF JILL from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
I received a sampler of JOJ from Risk Records a couple of months ago and expected big things from the backing of Tairrie B. Well, the razor slicing, cat loving, blood sucking Jessica and crew suffered from bad mix syndrome. Her vocals were overpowering and left our ears wondering what the other three people on stage were doing. Their set didn't really get the kick until their next to last song, but by that time I had already lost confidence in their abilities. I would like to see them with a good mix to hear how the music meshes with the vocals.
MAN WILL SURRENDER, not this one. Their sound is not typical of the "LA scene" at this point in time. It has its high points, a two-guitar attack late in the set for the song Darkroom. I may have that title wrong. I enjoyed their two-song sampler; it reminded me of MINDSET with a punky edge. If I am feeling in a metal mood, like Pat Boone, I will give these guys another shot live.
TURA SATANA! What did I see tonight? I saw Scott and Rico with more movement that ever before. Marcello gave one of his tightest sets ever. Tempos were held together. I would attribute this to their recent time spent in the recording studio. Their new sound does not have the rappy, hard as nails approach that they had on ALL IS NOT WELL. Their songs are more moody and atmospheric. Scott uses the clean channel with chorus to give them a new element of surprise. They opened the set with Scavenger Hunt. This is the first single off of their new album, 'Relief through Release.' It won't be out in the states until '98, but if you have friends in Europe, have them send it your way. They were handing out promo singles with two remixes of Scavenger Hunt. I prefer the sacrilegious sick66 mix the best. The first five songs were all new, and then song six is a personal fave, Hypocrite. The lyrics to this song describe somebody I know, they read like this; "Insecurity of who you are is such a show, inferiority complex only you know, but the mirror tells what your mouth won't, used to think that I know you, but I don't." That says it all about ____! Band call begins and Aimee from HWP joins in for Victim. Then three songs later my boy form SPINESHANK Johnny jumps on and rips Lynn a new one on this version of Down. Johnny does his best Lynn impersonation, and makes me wonder if he sang on this or if it was Lynn.
Off to Europe they go for another jaunt and I hope it goes better than the last trip. I also pray that they generate a lot of press that maybe these close-minded people that dictate what you see and hear will wipe the brown ring off of their neck and hear what is real!
CHEERS!