Evil Jack Makes Nice At the Comet Last Night With Seattle's Latitude x Longitude

Evil Jack will not bow to any sponsor.

Evil Jack took the stage at the Comet last night at 10 p.m. wearing a Pabst shirt, polyester pants, and a hollow-body electric guitar that he strummed with his left hand. He filled the following half hour with irreverent verses sung in the key of Lou Reed on top of bar chords set alongside '50s rock throwbacks.

"I'm sorry about the time I threw up under the Christmas tree/I had too much to drink/It wasn't my fault."

Jack, who hails from Chico, California, performs as if there were eight guys behind him and zero folks in front of him, eyes closed, and alone in his own word. His presence was strangely mesmerizing. Most artists tone down their sets to suit solo situations. But Jack, plugged into his amp and with veins popping out the side of his neck as he shouted through his final chorus, performed ferociously, as if he were supported by an arsenal of sidemen.

But as Jack explained to me after the show, this was but his fourth show performing as Evil Jack. And contrary to what the set suggested, he's never performed with a band in this project, though he's certain he'll get around to it sometime. This is just how Jack naturally approaches some alone time on stage, and it's more arresting than a lefty in polyester pants and an unaccompanied hollow-body has any right to be.

Seattle's Latitude x Longitude preceded Jack's set with a run through their own operatic chamber rock, with the occasional "oom pah pah" and hints of horror. Vocalist Rebeqa Rivers has a powerful, trained voice that's full of potential. Stand by for the band's full-length debut next year.

The Crowd: Thin and friendly. It appeared that the bulk of the audience was in the room to support Chris, the new bassist for Latitude x Longitude, who was celebrating his birthday last night.

Overhead In the Crowd: "I was gonna leave, but ..." Evil Jack took the stage and he was convinced to stay.

Random Notebook Dump: Three bands were booked to play the show. The middle act didn't show up. "If they show up now they can go fuck themselves," the bartender told me after Evil Jack.