Blowing the Blues Away

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Review

Hijack Oscar

There's a smell of bourbon and tobacco in the air as York's finest blues band, six-piece Hijak Oscar, roll into town. Named after a doomed steamboat's resident band who allegedly sold their souls to the devil, this is hairy, ghoulish blues music performed by an eclectic ensemble of scruffy, facial hair flaunting musicians, and an unashamedly Joplin-inspired front woman.

Hijak Oscar's self-styled mayhem certainly appears to be one catalyst in their idiosyncratically heavy, blues tinged romp of a set; but the juxtaposition of front man Tim Fox's Tom Waits styled husky drawl with Emma Keaveany's primal wail is the band's finest attribute. The lanky keyboardist resembles a bearded Peter Crouch, while Bassist Mark Meilack dresses as if he has stumbled out of Waits's backing band – cigarette in hand, with his black bowler hat, goatee beard and ponytail combo, and suit-jacket ensemble that would appear more at home on the set of a Tarantino film than upon an accomplished bassist hulked beneath a low, hollowed out cave. It's a look he's certainly mastered.

In the dark basement of Bannerman's the band blend seamlessly into their environment from the moment the first blast of harmonica bellows out against a backdrop of blustery, bluesy piano, drawling slide-guitar and the whisky-drenched yelps and groans from the vocally diametrical front pair. All the early blues influences are evident—from Son House to Oscar Peterson—in a set of songs that ooze murky and smoldering charisma.

Hijak Oscar wheeze and wail through a collection of up tempo blues numbers, with 'Bitter Carnival' a particular standout in what seems like an endless back catalogue of sombre yet sophisticated rock 'n' roll tunes. These songs are dark and brooding, laced with a devilish spark of Southern blues and prevalent atheistic undertones. The harmonica wheezes as if it is Fox's last breath as he reaches out for the audience's metaphorical souls. It's as if the Devil has left Georgia well and truly behind and shacked up in Hijak Oscar's touring van. And, on this evidence, they should have few complaints.

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