THE regular Midnight at the Olympia audience seemed thin on the ground on Saturday night, pressure at the bar a little less intense than normal, and, of all unexpected things, there was a sense of anticipation. Jack L and the Black Romantics, their fans seem to feel, are about to take another step up the ladder to global domination.
From semi theatrical performances at intimate venues, such as the Da Club, the band has finally begun filling the Olympia. The only question now is how far can a Jacques Brel interpreter - even a cool and sexy one, with a colossal voice, a Scott Walker vibrato, a black cane and a pair of leather trousers - get these days? Will this band become something more than an excellent Scott Walker tribute act? The jury may still be out on that, but Jack L and the Black Romantics give every sign that they couldn't care less.
While Jacques Brel never needed to think about the melodramatic nature of his subject matter, and his celebrated interpreter, Scott Walker, took it far loo seriously, vocalist Jack Lukeman has yet another approach to the Belgian's songs. He lets his deep, sassy voice caress all the "My death waits in your lips ... My death waits among the fallen leaves" palaver as though it was heartfelt, but still adopts a knowing distance, stirring in contemporary flavours of everyone from The Doors to Nick Cave and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This loving irreverence makes a show by Jack L and the Black Romantics significantly richer, and more engaging than just another night of fuzzy Brel pastiche.
The set list has few surprises; its effectiveness comes not from being startling, but from creating a sustained theatrical experience. As the band stepped cleanly through the putrefying remains of the Port of Amsterdam, danced bravely among the smoke clouds of Lockman, and then drifted into the masochistic fairytale of Fanette, they created a sharp impression - not, thankfully, of what these complicated songs might once have meant, but of what they could say today.
Now, if only somebody would do something equally honourable with the Serge Gainsbourg songbook.
