Power pop legend Joe Jackson is touring the USA once again, and he visits the Lincoln Theatre in DC on Monday, June 10.
Joe presents his Two Rounds of Racket Tour in DC, featuring a solo set of his original songs and a set based on the album What A Racket! – the first performance in more than 100 years of the songs of forgotten music hall genius Max Champion, featuring a nine-piece band.
In November, Joe released Mr. Joe Jackson Presents Max Champion in ‘What a Racket!’ via earMUSIC. The album features 11 tracks backed by an orchestra.
Joe developed the character of Max Champion, a fictional musician born in 1882 in London. But for purposes of the show, Joe treats him as if he really lived. “These were wonderful songs in their time, but they’re surprisingly modern, too. Sometimes it’s almost as if Max is speaking, from his London of the early 20th century, directly to us in the early 21st,” Joe said.
Watch the official music video for “What a Racket” by Joe Jackson presenting Max Champion on YouTube:
Five times Grammy nominee Joe Jackson is best known perhaps for hits like 1979’s witty “Is She Really Going Out With Him” and the sublime jazz-pop crossover smash “Steppin’ Out,” whose haunting urban dark keyed splendour is still the perfect soundtrack for a night-time foray into the neon-lit city. But while those hits personify certain facets of Jackson’s mercurial talent they don’t tell the whole story since he’s mastered so many musical styles, from power-pop to jive to cool combo swing, to the experimental fringes of the avant-garde, that rediscovering his catalogue is akin to investigating a variety of different moods.
Joe Jackson
Lincoln Theatre
Monday, June 10
Doors @ 6:30pm
$
All ages