Warbly Jets Dial It In At The Roxy

The Roxy | Los Angeles, CA | June 13, 2019 | Photos: ZB Images |

The last time Los Angeles retro rockers Warbly Jets played a hometown show it was at the Echo in January where frontman Samuel Shea was a wee bit under the weather but taking a cue from the fifth track on their 2017 self-titled debut album, Shea kept pushing. This night was night #2 of their SiriusXM Alt Nation Advanced Placement Tour with Bloxx and Hembree and there appeared to be no such issue to hold Shea, Julien O’Neill (keys), Dan Gerbang (bass) and Saamuel Richards (drums) back. In fact, the larger Roxy stage gave the band a bit more real estate to move around and flex their rock swagger – something Shea’s long legs took full advantage of as the vibrant density of the band’s sound bounced off of the Roxy walls.

In case you didn’t know, Warbly Jets are what turn of the 21^stcentury British rock sounds like in the hands of a hip and plucky bunch of Los Angeles Americans today. A spacey and spacious, synth-washed, sampled, and funked-up hybrid of Kasabian and Oasis, equal parts acidic riffs and sweet grooves with a broad-based human commentary applicable to just about every era where rock music had an attitude and hope to adjust that of the listener by banging out songs like “The Lowdown,” “Alive,” “Cool Kill Machine” and “No Allegiance to the Game.”

Because you don’t just kick out an EP called Propaganda where the title track shreds war, rails about the rapture and surviving a tortured era without being a little dialed into the nonsensicality of the times. And dialed in Warbly Jets are: they simply make the nonsense sound dance and headbang-worthy and – trust – we appreciate that.