Barat & The Jackals Give Intimate Performance At The 100 Club
Published
Fresh off the back of three huge gigs at Alexandra Palace as part of a European tour with the band with which he found his fame, The Libertines, Carl Barat may have found Oxford Street’s tiny 100 Club something of a culture shock. The last night of an intimate, six-date tour with new band The Jackals was long since sold-out, despite the band only having released one track to date.
Taking to the stage in his trademark leather jacket, despite the ever-increasing temperature in the venue, Barat and his band launched into a quick one-two of tracks from forthcoming album ‘Let it Reign’ before sending the already enraptured crowd into even more of a frenzy with ‘Gin & Milk’ by former band Dirty Pretty Things. The Jackals seemed to carry the intensity of DPT, with a much heavier edge than any of Barat’s previous work.
One cannot think of Carl without his Libertines bandmate Pete Doherty coming to mind, and sure enough the first of three Libs songs the bands played, “Death on the Stairs” was dedicated to Doherty, or “my boy Pete” as he referred to him, who is in rehab in Thailand.
One of several highlights of the night was midway through the set, where the band briefly left the stage, with just Barat and an acoustic guitar remaining for a rendition of obscure Libertines track “France” and the title track from The Jackals album.
The band returned, and almost as quickly departed after thrashing through DPT single “Bang Bang, You’re Dead” and new track “War of the Roses”. This was never going to be enough for the crowd though, and lo and behold they came back to finish on the same track The Libertines had ended their Ally Pally gigs with, “I Get Along”. While The Jackals showed promise, they certainly have a long way to go to emulate the successes of Barat’s endeavours with Doherty.
Words by Frankie Godding
