Kevin Bronson on December 6th, 2014

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By Tarynn Law

“She asked me is it painless, am I humoring the brainless? Being young and drunk and all f*cked up and being in entertainment?”

The year was 2007. The last Harry Potter book had just been released, Bob Barker handed the skinny microphone of “The Price is Right” over to Drew Carey, Anna Nicole Smith passed away and ​the very first iPhone ever (yes, ever) was released. That was also the last time that South London alt-rocker Jamie T had hopped across the pond to play Los Angeles.

||| Photos by Michelle Shiers

On Wednesday night at the Roxy, though, he came back as a more mature version of his cheeky “Sticks ‘n Stones” self with a new album under his belt, “Carry on the Grudge.” The 28-year-old, born Jamie Alexander Treays, brought the crowd in easy with that album’s first two cuts, the laid-back “Limits Lie” and “Don’t You Find,”
before fans began clamoring for some of his more upbeat material. Thankfully he delivered with the onslaught of “Operation,” the frenzied and attitude-drenched song from his 2006 album “Panic Prevention,” and “Peter,” the most sinister track from his new album (that does indeed deal with mental illness, as he explained before it was played).

Rocking Alex Turner-esque slicked-back hair and a leather jacket, Jamie T adopted a rocker’s power stance and a preference for performing with the mic off to the side instead of the front, giving the show a slightly off-kilter vibe that’s so often present in his music. He laid into some of his older tracks before performing a stripped-back version of the song quoted above, “The Prophet” with that “no shit, Sherlock” sneer he does so well.

One of “Carry on the Grudge’s” most beautiful moments comes in the album’s last song, “They Told Me It Rained,” and he saved it for late. The hushed cries of “show me love” washed over the crowd like a wave with their sincerity, a stark contrast to the next two songs – the fun-loving, “Walking Dead”-reminiscent “Zombie” and arguably his biggest single “Sticks and Stones,” which had everyone chanting along like they were in one of London’s famed pubs.

For a musician who hadn’t released new music in quite some time and hadn’t toured the United States for even longer, fans on Wednesday embraced both his old, fun material and his new, more sophisticated sound. For Jamie Treays, it seems like it’s been more than worth it for him to be a little bit older but still drunk, all f*cked up, and being in entertainment.

L.A. quintet Irontom opened the night with a typically energetic set.