John & Jehn

The French. They’re the Marmite of nationalities. Francophiles love their brashness, arrogance, preference for long lunches and the fact that they’re always up for a protest, strike or round of pseudo-philosophical chin-wagging. Critics hate them for those very reasons. It’s a perceptual Catch 22 for the Gallic set… not that they seem to mind.

Transplant this idea from the macro to the micro and we come to John & Jehn - a young French couple who epitomise everything Anglo Francophiles lust after and the critics despise. They’re brash, painfully hip, visibly obsessed with something commonly labelled as style over substance and they aren’t afraid to flaunt it. So again, you’re likely to love them or hate them for the exact same reasons.

Luckily for John & Jehn, it’s all vive la France with the audience tonight as the duo step to the Old Blue Last’s stage for a soiree celebrating all things from the land of un-pasteurised cheese (Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadler is even DJing between sets).

Shooting straight from the hips with heavy accents and an assured swagger, the London-based duo ooh and ah their way through highlights from their self-titled debut. Live, the pair embody a musical history book whose pages are permanently opened to the chapter on ultra-hip musical couples. Album and set highlight, ‘20 L 07’, sets its sights on Suicide’s Alan Vega and Martin Rev, with John even going so far as asking the audience to put on their sunglasses at the start. Supported by the most basic of drum machines and synth, the song’s lyrics, “Johnny Johnny, my sweetest friend, says love should be full of suspense”, openly pay homage to Vega and Rev’s own ‘Johnny’ from their seminal debut.

‘Fear, Fear, Fear’ ponders what Nico and the Velvet Underground would have sounded like if Hazelwood and Sinatra had been brought onboard for songwriting duties, whilst ‘Survive’ sets itself up as the sweetest duet you could imagine Thurston and Kim singing to each other around the family home. And of course, the obvious similarities to Gainsbourg and Birkin – the patron saints of Franco pop couplings – are there to be found as well. But even when buried beneath a pile of references, John & Jehn bring more to the stage than just the sounds of a hip record collection. Every monotone groan and whisper thankfully avoids being dragged down into pastiche as the duo effortlessly flick and sway to a beloved sound they’ve clearly made their own. Confident in every gesture and occasionally poised manner, all that matters to these two lovers tonight is the music they visibly make for each other and no one else.

May they live happily ever after.

Photo: Martin Cohen