Bear with me in a philosophical pondering: the band have long confirmed that the “stoned” in Stoned Jesus refers to the elevated mellow state stoner rock implies, but I also can’t help picturing the violent act of stoning, murdering someone by throwing rocks at them. Holding that image of the many destroying the unique in mind, their music gains not just a revolutionary note, but a dystopian one. When the holder of light is killed, what’s left in its wake?
Brought together in 2008 by the vibrant music scene of Kyiv, capital of free Ukraine and a hub of genre-blending and defying bands, giving us such exquisite acts as DakhaBrakha and ONUKA, Stoned Jesus broke through as one of the most recognizable stoner bands of the 2010s and onwards. Their debut album, Seven Thunders Roar, with its Native-American-inspired cover art and lyrical stories of nature goddesses and travelling strangers, is a genre-classic, mainly due to the many ways it differs from other stoner rock approaches: primarily, a focus on melody. The ear-worm riffs are there, the breathing space too, but there is a folk-like quality to the album in its focus on melodious verses, that makes it almost feel like a rock take on a collection of harvest songs.
This lent itself well to the absolutely pumped and packed crowd in Electric Ballroom on the first day of Desertfest, who lent their voices and mosh pits to the opening track, Porcelain (off their latest album Father Light), an implosive sludgey merry-go-round of a doom song. I’d had to run between venues and walked into a mayhem of crowd surfers and thrown beers, the collective joy and energy so infectious, I swam through people so I could get closer to the action. That joy seeped to the band as well, who always have playful sections riffing off of each other, the bass steady while the guitar twiddles, the drums going crazy while the vocals repeat.
As most Ukrainian bands able to tour these days, Stoned Jesus was collecting donations to help support Ukrainian families in war-stricken areas. The cheers from the crowd came almost unbidden – all they had to say was “As you know, we’re from Ukraine” – and we raised our voices like a myriad-bodied “I got you”. It’s the magic of live music, this immediate connection between band and audience where one holds the other, shows up for the other. Not to be sentimental, but it’s why seeing your favourite band feels like going home.
A home best encapsulated by the most inescapable riff of the day. It dug into my ears, that timeless melody you could easily believe to have been the origin story told through song for some yet-unknown race of giants. The wonderfully subdued piece I am the Mountain was instantly picked up by the moshing crowd, belting out the eponymous opening lyric and holding on to the melody for the many twists of what turned into playful three-way jam session. It allowed vocalist and guitarist Igor Sydorenko to jump into the sea of people and crowdsurf, as his bandmates kept the hypnotic groove going. What a song to be held up by a hundred pairs of hands to!
As they prepared to close on Electric Mistress, Andrew (on bass) and Igor exchanged increasingly famous riffs (I recognized Smoke on the Water and another bordering close to the Mission Impossible theme) while inviting the crowd to sing along. When it was 4-note riffs, we managed fine. When the tunes became increasingly shreddy, we could just about get a lalalallallalalaa out between fits of laughter.
Joy. Live music is joy. For the band, for the audience. We share a space for an hour so we can together find a kind of happiness hard to glimpse in the isolation of our headphones and apartments. Go out. Go see live music. You need it. It needs you.
Stoned Jesus Setlist
Venue: Electric Ballroom, London
Set:
- Porcelain
- Thessalia
- Black Woods
- Here Come the Robots
- Bright Like the Morning
- I'm the Mountain
- Electric Mistress