Jawbreaker live at the Tower Of London in Leeds, England, on 10/23/1994. "The venue looks to be rather small and intimate, and the fans are very enthusiastic throughout; the 24 Hour Revenge Therapy songs get the best response. Before Accident Prone, Blake conjectures that the audience is going to hate the song."-The Complete Jawbreaker Page.
This is the earliest know recorded performance (video or audio) and it is full of some really amazing treasures. There are several songs that the band stopped playing early-on and so this is the only testament to what they were like when performed live, most notable is "Busy". A couple other gems are an early version of "Sleep" with Chris on vocals, as well as "With Or Without U2". Enjoy.
1) Welcome To Our Band 2) Gutless 3) Down 4) Busy 5) Driven 6) Want 7) Lawn 8) Eye-5 9) Imaginary War 10) Shield Your Eyes 11) Sleep 12) With Or Without U2 "The members look noticeably younger - Blake's face is a bit chubbier and Adam's hair is long. The band plays some songs that they stopped playing the next year - including Busy, Imaginary War, Sleep, and With or Without U2. Sleep features Chris on vocals! He also sings with Blake in parts of With or Without U2. Shield Your Eyes is structured differently than Bivouac LP version - it has an instrumental intro, plus part of the first verse is repeated at the end of the song as in the 7" Shredder version. Down has the old lyrics as on Demo #1. The picture of this video is really clear ... however, the cameraman has a lot of fun and goes crazy with zooming in, moving around, and even turning the picture upside down. It would be annoying if it weren't fucking hilarious. The sound is another issue. The instruments are clear, but the vocals are almost nonexistant; this is probably the fault of the club, and not the video. It's unfortunate, because most of the songs end up sounding like instrumentals. If you aren't familiar with the vocal parts of the songs, you probably won't hear anything, but if you know the melody lines, you will hear them faintly. They seem to get quieter and quieter as the show goes on. This is a shame because it's really hard to hear Chris singing Sleep." -The Complete Jawbreaker Page
"Blake's voice is positively trashed from the start, and gets progressively worse as the set continues - with interesting results. The band opens with a handful of relatively new songs (read: post-Unfun), and when they finally play some old material in the form of Fine Day, the crowd goes nuts. Want is another crowd-pleaser... and watch for the surprised look on peoples' faces when they hear the different lyrics in the chorus; they rectify the situation themselves by belting out the original chorus at the end of the song, singing in unison and creating backing vocals that sound as powerful as Blake's own voice. Another great moment occurs in the beginning of Kiss the Bottle when Chris makes a faulty entrance, and Blake and Chris communicate with body language to get back on track. Before Parabola, Blake makes a note that the song was written as a reaction against accusations of their being a "popcore" band. Equalized is incredible. Blake gets someone from the crowd to step up to the mic, after which the band begins with a mellow, pretty interpolation of the main riff (as in the 21 Mar. 1992 performance). The crowd member starts singing the song, with Blake not even attempting to do any vocals; he is soon joined three other crowd members, who perform the entire song together sans Blake. Blake does attempt the next song, Shield Your Eyes, but his voice starts to give out towards the end - thus resulting in the Equalized crew taking over the rest of the vocals in the song. Next is a fine version of You Can't Afford Me, which Blake introduces as the "our angry song." This song is filmed with a strange slow-motion/low frame rate effect, which is cheesy but fitting somehow. After Chasing the Wild Goose, Blake notes, "I'm gonna die" in reference to his voice."- The Complete Jawbreaker Page.
Jawbreaker playing live at Mad Hatter's in Ft. Worth TX on 3/10/1994.
"Blake dedicates Kiss the Bottle to some girl on the verge of minor surgery. The band seems to be pissed off for most of the show. Blake snaps at the crowd for requesting songs, telling them, "Don't tell us the songs we do, we know them." He also expresses disdain at the fact that a light is pointed directly at him, comparing himself to a bug under a lamp. There is a funny moment when a fight breaks out in the crowd and Blake demonstrates his fine crowd control by saying, "hey, hey...hey" into the mic repeatedly. Blake's mood seems to lighten up by the end of the show, in any case. Interesting note: after the band stops playing, Blake says that despite the rumors, the band "will not sign to a major!"" - The Complete Jawbreaker Page.
Not the greatest camera work, but still not bad, the dark lighting kinda fits the mood. The sound is great, and the banter is ledgendary. A more detailed description and an audio version of the show is (occasionally) available for download from the Jawbreaker Live Mp3 Show Place Thingy located here: http://jawbreaker.nfshost.com/
I'm uploading several live shows by Jawbreaker and their other bands. I'm also collecting other related videos here as well for easy viewing. The full shows are easiest to watch by clicking on "playlists" at the top of the page.
If anyone has any other shows that I don't have here, I would love a copy to post.
I'm uploading several live shows by Jawbreaker and their other bands. I'm also collecting other related videos here as well for easy viewing. The full shows are easiest to watch by clicking on "playlists" at the top of the page.
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