The scheduled band at Jandro’s Garden Patio took to the stage Friday night on the St. Mary’s Strip and had a very simple message for its audience:
“We’re Jason Kane & The Jive — and you’re being recorded.”
For the next hour and 10 minutes, a flurry of heavy funkateer fury blitzed Jandro’s (pronounced HAHN-dro’s) with one rockin’ tune after another. No further spoken words. No song-title introductions. Just in-your-face Rock N’ Roll from one of the Alamo City’s veteran musical acts.
It’s only fitting Jason Kane & The Jive is a trio because if good things come in threes, well, 2024 continues to be a banner year for the group and its namesake.
First, The Jive toured Spain in February and March, a huge deal that should’ve gained more recognition around these parts given that it’s not every day a local band undertakes a significant jaunt overseas. The trek encompassed 18 shows in 20 days covering 19 cities. Three of them sold out.
“It was fucking great, man. It was one of the best experiences,” Kane told Alamo True Metal moments before hitting the stage Friday. “They fucking still love Rock N’ Roll over there. Had us playing on the radio. It was just us. We had no other band we were touring with, and the word was really spreading really fast.”
Second came the gathering at Jandro’s, with Friday marking the second of back-to-back nights in which the band was recording Jason Kane & The Jive: Live at Jandro’s. The album is expected to feature eight tracks covering not only the group’s three full-length records (2017’s self-titled debut, 2018’s Hellacious Boogie and 2020’s Soggy Noggin) but also a pair from its forthcoming studio CD (see 30-photo gallery for the expected track listing).
The third is that upcoming album, with Kane revealing it will be called Find Out For Yourself.
“There’s eight songs on it, and man, we’ve been working on it for like two years now,” Kane said. “Just dying to get it out, but I’m trying to have it follow up the correct tour. So next year, we’ll be touring the fourth (studio album) and this (live) album for Portugal, Spain, France, and then hopefully do a whole U.S. tour when we come back, and go back out there and kind of bookend the year with Europe. I’m shooting for a November/December (release).”
Kane, 28, is a native of Berwyn, Illinois, who moved to San Antonio in 2005. His blend of blues, funk and loud Zeppelin-ish pure Rock N’ Roll harkens back to the era of bellbottoms that makes one wonder if he was born in the wrong era. Kane has been tearing up the local scene for nearly a decade, long before his songs were officially released in album form while also frequently returning to Chicago, even staging a live residency in the Windy City.
“When I did the residency at Reggie’s, one of the opening bands, I was a big fan of his band The Last Vegas,” Kane said of guitarist Adam Arling spearheading The Jive’s trek overseas. “We hit it off, and I was just fan girlin’ over my buddy Adam. And he was like, “You guys ever think about going to Europe?” And I was like, ‘No.’ It wasn’t even in my mind yet or like a thought. And he was like, ‘I wanna connect you with my people out there, and then I’ll let you take it from there.’ He came through.
“The weirder thing is that when we got there, our driver, he used to drive my dad’s band Master,” Kane said. “Chicago death metal was still full circle in Spain, and I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ “
The Arling-Kane connection was not the first time The Last Vegas had a tie-in with a San Antonio act. In 2008, The Heroine made it to the finals of Guitar Center’s contest to see who would open for Motley Crue on the inaugural Cruefest, beating out thousands of entrants and receiving the chance to impress Motley Crue members at The Whisky A Go-Go, only to fall short to the contest’s winner: The Last Vegas.
Kane has had a revolving door on bass and drums the past few years. The latest incarnation of The Jive features two more new players.
James Powell, who goes by J Pow Pow, not only unveiled a bass with different colored strings, but an infectious sense of humor when describing to ATM how he joined the band, resulting in this exchange:
POWELL: “Did you just call me by my legal name? What the hell is going on right here? I’ve gotta get away from this guy!”
ATM: “That means I know you without knowing you.”
POWELL: “Hey, I don’t want you knowing me without knowing me! I had that happen one time. But I like you a little bit.”
Then Powell got serious. Sort of.
“So I saw him on the side of the road one time,” Powell said of meeting Kane. “Naw, for real! He was begging for change with a guitar. And I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’
“But actually, when I first moved to Texas, Jandro’s was having Thursday open jams. And I would come, and I would play, and a couple people was like, ‘Have you met Jason Kane?’ Like, they was really talking about him. I was like, ‘No. I have not. I just moved here.’ And then one Thursday, we ended up jamming together, and we just kind of stayed in contact over the years. I followed his band, he would follow my band, showing a lot of love. We played a gig together, but he doesn’t remember that. Just being friends over the years. And then last year, he hit me up. He was like, ‘Hey man, I need a very sexy, beautiful, dark-skinned, chocolate bass player.’ And I was like, ‘I think I can fit that bill.’ So Jandro’s has really been a connection place for me, because this is where I met him.”
Tommy Bryant, aka Tommy Paycheck, rounds out the trio on drums out of Austin.
“His drummer at the time wasn’t able to go,” Bryant said of his involvement with The Jive. “We had a mutual friend, and (Jason) was like, ‘Do you know anybody who can play these songs and leave next month to go to Spain?’ And then he sent him my contact. I went and watched them play and thought it was incredible. I worked for myself and was able to carve away some time. Did some rehearsals with them, played some shows, and then we went over there, and the rest is history. They’ve been my brothers ever since. We made it through Spain together.”
All of which led to Friday. Taking the stage at 11:22 p.m., the all-white leather jacket and pants clad Kane, shirtless J Pow Pow and small-kit bangin’ Tommy Paycheck kicked things off with 2018 tune “Gypsy Kiss,” jump starting an 18-song performance plus bass jam and drum solo that ended at 12:32 a.m.
Tossing in a cover of UFO’s “Doctor Doctor,” The Jive had Jandro’s jammin’ all night. Watch them in action below on ATM footage of “Chica Boom” and “Titty Boi Rabbit,” the latter a funkabilly tune that, as J Pow Pow demonstrates, makes you want to run in place while slappin’ da bass.
“Last night was like tweaking and kind of feeling out the waters,” Kane said of Thursday’s first night of live-album recording at Jandro’s. “And tonight, we’re doing the full Spain set. Non-stop, just gonna keep going as soon as we start. Yesterday, I tried to chop it up and do all this shit, and I fucked it up.”
Making the live recording come alive was Studio E and owner Brant Sankey.
“I love working with Brant,” Kane said. “His approach to recording is not like most people’s. He just captures what the band sounds like instead of trying to change them, you know, and get all processed. He captures the raw live sound. We’re a dirty live band.”
Fans will be able to judge for themselves in the coming weeks when the live album drops on vinyl and all major streaming platforms before Find Out For Yourself sees the light of day. The two releases will give local metalheads and rockers more opportunities to support one of their own in greater numbers than in years past.
After all, San Antonio — you wouldn’t want Spain to outdraw you for one of your own musical artists, would you?
“I think it’s just the States in general,” Kane said of the difficulty of San Antonio bands breaking through in their own city. “Right now, with the live shows, in Europe, they’re still crazy about it. But I still consider Texas my home. I’ve been here longer even though I still say I’m from Chicago. But I’m more Texan now. Texas gave us the start. It’s definitely different, man. I’ve noticed here in San Antonio, they want a lot of cover bands. Which is no offense against covering musicians. It’s hard. But for original Rock N’ Roll, it’s harder.”
Now that The Jive has even more countries on its radar for the remainder of this year, it’s all about giving the general public more material to get their boogie on.
“I feel like this album is going to capture what everything pre-recorded should sound like and how it should be done, you know, with attitude,” Kane said. “With these guys playing — J Pow on bass and Tommy on drums — it’s going to bring a new life.”
Powell had a premonition on that too: “I thought I was playing triangle tonight.”
“No,” Kane said. “That was yesterday.”
