Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, Rainbow, Birmingham

“It’s good to be back in fucking Birmingham, but come a bit closer and let’s pretend it’s a rock ‘n’ roll gig,” called frontman Jim Jones from the stage of the Rainbow, before bursting into the swampy blues of “Aldecide”. The audience needed no other invitations and pushed towards the stage to drink up the Righteous Mind’s primal groove.

Jim Jones is a brave man. Every few years he pulls the plug on his band, gets together a new like-minded group and starts from scratch. Having called an end to the mighty Jim Jones Revue in 2014, he’s back with new combo The Righteous Mind and a set of all new tunes. It’s still firmly rooted in scuzzy punk blues, but with his latest incarnation a hefty dose of voodoo has been stirred into the pot of Jones’s own particular sonic gumbo, and it’s a heady brew.

The duelling guitars of Jones and Malcolm Troon set the place on fire

A chant of “Give everything, take everything” started up the percussion-heavy “Til it’s all gone” and drew the crowd in further before the band lay into the lairy lead track of their debut EP, “Boil yer blood”, and the magnificent “No fool” with stand-in drummer and band producer Jim Sclavunos of the Bad Seeds laying down a mightily thunderous groove. The volume leapt up and the crowd moved and swayed as if transfixed. While the songs may be new and largely unrecorded, it didn’t phase anyone.

Bringing down the temperature somewhat, Jones called forth the more mellow but no less menacing “Shallow grave” and “Save my life” before launching into the peddle steel-heavy voodoo blues of “1000 miles from the sure”. The more chilled mood is fleeting though and Jones transformed into a demented preacher before our eyes for “Hold on”, howling “I’m satisfied” over and over again. And well he might be. Discarding a golden hoard of songs with the demise of the Jim Jones Revue hasn’t slowed him down one bit, as he laid down barnstormer after barnstormer. The primal “Base is loaded” was followed by high-octane “Dream”, and it’s almost like hearing a band tear into their classic tracks, never mind their first set of tunes.

As the Righteous Mind headed into the final straight, they laid down a raw shuffle that brought to mind the Stooges’ “1969” for “Hands on you” before the duelling guitars of Jones and Malcolm Troon set the place on fire. “We’ve only got time for one more,” barked Jones, before breaking out the riff to “Walk it out” – an MC5-like tour de force. As the final notes faded away, Jones invited all-comers to the bar for a drink, and it soon became clear The Righteous Mind had made plenty of new friends to drink with.

Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind’s debut album will be something special if it manages to bottle the genie of this show. I can’t be the only one who’s already looking forward to its spring release with baited breath.