Review: Jon Spencer at Mojos Bar

Jon Spencer at Mojos Bar
w/ Datura 4, Dan Howls Band
Monday, September 29, 2025

Intimate. That was the word going in. The great Jon Spencer playing Mojos?! The modern-day “Blues Explosion” taking over our favourite North Freo local? Hells yeah.

Ok, so “loud” was probably the word most of us came away with. Happy to say the white noise has finally left my ears two days later, but for a no wave, punk and rock’n’roll assault on the senses of this quality, it was worth every second.

Monday’s lineup didn’t look as deep as the previous Friday’s Rechabite show with Magic Dirt in the main support slot, but for the early arrivals Monday there were no complaints about the Dan Howls Band or Dom Mariani’s Datura 4 taking the stage beforehand.

The latter, in particular—very much an appropriately blues-rock template for The Stems’ frontman for this show—has stood the test of time now and featured plenty of nasty shredding. Mariani was in particularly fine form on Evil People and Get Out, giving the fretboard a keen workout.

Explosive is a word so synonymous with Jon Spencer that it basically features in the name of his most famous band, Blues Explosion. Monday night was explosive, to say the least.

The players may have changed over the years, but that’s only served to bring a little youth and spunk to the current lineup (no disrespect to the great Judah Bauer and Russell Simins). Now 60, Spencer’s no spring chicken, and this kind of assault requires energy. Energy from the band; energy from the audience. It’s a mutual exchange.

Enlisting Kendall Wind and Macky Bowman (bass and drums, respectively) from Woodstock, NY garage rockers The Bobby Lees has clearly given him a breath of fresh air. Spencer remains the sharply dressed focal point, but the trio’s chemistry ensured there was no direction you’d look in where the energy, rhythm and blues weren’t coming at you, and full throttle.

Bass alone is a changeup for Blues Explosion fans, who’d be used to the dual guitar attack of Spencer and Bauer in the most famous lineup, and Wind especially was a breath of fresh air. Focused, intense and prominent in the mix, she even got a shot at lead vocals on standout Fancy Pants (find that one on their raging mini-album Sick of Being Sick! from 2024).

Between a slew of Blues Explosion highlights, newer soon-to-be classics like this and the odd deep cut like Trash Can, Ghost and Get It Together, there was less room to breathe between songs than a Ramones show. The spirit of punk and noise rock was alive and well all night, and everyone left sweaty.

HARVEY RAE

Photos by Suzanne Phoenix