The Moshville Times - Jizzy Pearl (Love/Hate) / Knock Out Kaine – Bannermans, Edinburgh (30th March 2017)

So here we are for the second time this month at Bannermans Edinburgh for Jizzy Pearl’s Love/Hate but this is a special acoustic show and the only one on the tour. Before we get to the big man though we have another acoustic set to get through in the form of those lovable nutters Knock Out Kaine.

The boys tell us they had a bit of a nightmare getting here today thanks to a certain Marvel Avengers film on location in the town centre. The guys start us off with “Cascading” from the excellent Rise of the Electric Jester before we get a nice acoustic outing for “Skinstar” from House of Sins; this track never gets aired enough. We head back to said album for the excellent singalong track “Backstreet Romeo” before an excellent cover of “Free Falling” by Tom Petty. An all too short a set comes to an end with the fantastic “Coming Home” again from the House of Sins album. As I’ve said before: catch these boys on tour as they are never a disappointment.

The main event now as the intro music starts up and Jizzy hits the stage to a loud cheer, with the Budweiser cross in hand. The band settle down for the evening as Christian Kimmett gets settled on his stool with a nice acoustic bass, Stevie Pearce sets up on another stool, acoustic in hand and Mickey Richards sets up with a Trick quiet drum kit as Jizzy leads us into a stunning version of “Wasted in America”. The songs are so strong, either full on electric or stripped back acoustic, and Jizzy’s voice just shines through – which says a lot both for the quality of the songs and the man’s voice.

We get a tasty version of “Tumbleweed” next from Blackout in the Red Room before a little “Social Sidewinder” action as we slide into the first of tonight’s little story interludes, this time from 1992 as Love/Hate Ozzy Ozbourne on his No More Tears tour in Europe. The band were looking forward to the mayhem on the tour with Ozzy but as it happened this was a dry tour as Ozzy was on the wagon at the time. Jizzy tells us of his ing the big man’s dressing room to see him doing sit ups and generally keeping fit. We fast forward to a drinking incident in Berlin involving Zakk Wylde, asking Jizzy if he did karate – the rock ‘n’ roll life on the road.

We head back to the music as the band launch into an absolutely stunning version of “Love Hurts” that really would have made Dan McCafferty proud. A stunning solo duo of songs follows from the excellent Just a Boy album in the form of “Better Days” and “Do You Wanna Get High”.

An absolute highlight of the whole tour now as we get handed lyric sheets as Jizzy brings out the bongo and Mickey Richards comes out to the front, not to sing but to read through the lyrics to “Happy Hour” with such lyrical gems as “Screwdriver Mrs. Phillips gives head for bottlecaps”. This had to be seen and heard to fully appreciate how funny it was with Mickey reading Jizzy’s song out and making sarcastic comments on the content; the man himself on the bongo and every time it came to “Happy Hour” in the song, Mickey would hand the microphone to the man to sing only that part.

We head back to Wasted in America with “She’s an Angel” before our next tour tale, this time revolving around the slot on the Skid Row Slave to the Grind tour and an amusing tale of a little misunderstanding bust-up with Sebastian Bach, getting thrown off the tour and then getting back on the tour.

A nice double bill next in the form of some “Cream” and “Don’t Fuck with Me” from Wasted in America before we get a fantastic rare outing in acoustic form of “Spinning Wheel” from the Best Of album in 2007. We get all tied up in a “Straight Jacket” before we get to the Hollywood sign incident story involving a DIY cross and the letter Y. This involved Jizzy, with the help of the band and a few others, successfully erecting a cross on the letter ‘Y’ of the Hollywood sign and performing a mock crucifixion on it. The band had assumed the authorities would quickly notice the stunt but in the event Jizzy was stuck on the cross, sixty feet in the air, for several hours. Eventually a TV news helicopter spotted him and the police and fire dept were called to bring him down.

That “Evil Twin” rears his acoustic head before we end a truly stunning non-electric night with “Blackout in the Red Room”. I’ve mentioned it before, on the last electric date, but Jizzy is truly on fire at the moment; thoroughly comfortable and very obviously enjoying himself. The band are just fantastic and the whole thing – electric and acoustic – is just a joy to watch and listen to.

If you missed the tour then more fool you as this will truly be a hard show/tour to sur next time… indeed if there is a next time, though I truly hope there is with this kind of quality.

All photos by Gary Cooper.