It has been waaaaaaaayy too long since I've seen the Black Jetts perform. I'm never sure why that is. Is it because they're not really the best about promoting their gigs? Or is it because I'm not really the biggest "Rock N Roll" music fan? I dunno if it's either, but whatever it is, I'm always glad to be seeing the Black Jetts play, because if you catch them on the right night in the right place, they will blow your mind and get you shaking your drunken ass around to what they're laying down. They'll make you a Believer. Tonight they had the unfortunate bit of luck of trying to follow up to what the Mapes had just done, which was basically bring the house down, and in the very beginning it seemed like a lost cause. The energy level of the room just dropped. The Mapes took 70% of the crowd with them outside, myself included, and by the time I got back in it looked like the Black Jetts were playing to a crowd of less than average size. Undaunted, they still played like their lives depended on them rocking the fuck out, playing with an air of bravado and desperation about them which just adds a bit of a grittiness and street sensibility to the music they play.By the time I walked back in from chillaxing outside, the Black Jetts were already laying waste to the small but energetic crowd, throwing out huge, heavy riffs that were as big as a Hummer and just as heavy, and the people were loving it. Gabe has them eating out of the palm of his hand, and Roy and Thom and Chad are right there behind him, pouring the concrete that Gabe is foming into the bedrock foundation they're all standing on. The foundation of Rock! LOL It's great to watch a band like the Black Jetts just convert the non-believers into fans, and to work their fans into a fist-pumping, head nodding, screaming lather. Especially the chicks. They all come up close to check out Gabe (and maybe Thom) and while they're checking them out, they get hooked on the tunes. Fun to see. The Black Jetts had everyone in the bar watching them, feeling what they were playing, and reacting accordingly. Some danced. Some drank faster. Some just nodded their head to the music, sharing there in the moment. Gabe sang from the pulpit like a crazed Southern Minister, all hand gestations and table thumping, with everyone behind him acting as his unholy choir, providing the hymns which were leading us all to Hell without a care or concern. The band only got stronger as their set progressed, and by the time Roy got around to hauling out that crazy theramin noise making thingy of his, the bar had filled up again, and everyone was right there on the same level as the band. Some more so than others, right Brendan? LOL Yeah, it was that kind of night. The Black Jetts are the Real Deal, providers of The Rock, and tonights performance was one for the record books. Damn skippy.