Back in the bad old days of the late Nineties, the UK spit up a vitriolic pair of aces and eights: first the Libertines, then Babyshambles. The former gained few footholds outside of indie skag-rock, although they blew up big thanks to producer and former Clash city rocker Mick Jones.
Dueling frontmen Carl Barat and Pete Doherty vied for drugged fealty amidst a swirl of narcotics, with the end result being a handful of memorable East End debauched singles but not much else. Doherty later succumbed to a sort of reality-TV spiral that included too many rehab stints to count, and Kate Moss, too. It was all a bit too much.
Barat & the Jackals – new bandmates, selectively chosen – slewed all over the tiny back stage at Lucille, but never once fell out of the groove and into anything approaching shambles. If anything, Barat’s swaggering stage presence now comes off dirtier and prettier. Opening anthem “Glory Days,” off new LP Let It Reign, oozed saucy, salacious remorse without shedding a tear for the Doherty daze, while flammable favorite “Victory Gin” had Barat screaming, “I am not afraid of anyone; I defy anyone to tell me that I’m wrong!”
Don’t look at us.
Libertines-throwback “Summer in the Trenches” immediately made you remember why you loved the madness of Barat and Doherty in the first place. The song stomps like a freshly revived decedent, albeit with better hooks. The epic rock grenade “War of the Roses” sealed the deal, and the night, with napalm-and-cider exuberance.
There was talk of a North American tour for the newly detented Libertines, but that’s apparently gone down in ashes as well. No matter. If anyone’s a phoenix, it’s Carl Barat & the Jackals.
Flame out, flame in, and rock on.
Complete SXSW Music coverage at austinchronicle.com/sxsw/music
This article appears in March 13 • 2015.