May 30, 2000

London King's Cross Water Rats

There's no pomp...

That intense, thin young man hunched over a keyboard, singing with his eyes wide shut, strumming his guitar and shaking his head so hard his stringy lemon-yellow hair whips across his face? He's Matt Jones. He used to be in a band called Ultrasound, but that's not going to be important much longer.

There's no pomp, precious little circumstance here. Just Jones and three friends, Jones strumming and singing, eyes forever closed, never breaking into a smile; Jim Dee, one-time Ultrasound producer, beside him, creating thrilling, turbulent screes of noise with his acoustic guitar and his various gadgets; the rhythm section solidly holding everything together.

And the songs. Like Ziggy-era Bowie singing with Built To Spill in full-on prog-magic mode. Sprawling out as far as they can go, without ever losing their pop punch, raw and emotion-drenched but never bumbling into lagoons of self-pity. 'I Love' is the faintly U2-esque jangle that builds and builds until it's all you can focus on. '5000 Minutes Of Pain' is the epic ballad that sucks all the air out of the room and replaces it with stardust, that leaves the audience dazed, confused and slackjawed in love when it finishes.

And that faltering, pipecleaner-skinny boy who can barely murmur "Thanks" into his mic when the set is finished, dashing backstage before anyone can talk to him? That's Matt Jones. He's Minuteman. And he's gonna be pretty important, pretty soon.

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