A few commenters yesterday basically said “No Weller? No Way” at the prospect of going to see From The Jam at the Birchmere last night, and rightfully so. Since forming some 30-odd years ago, frontman Paul Weller has been The Jam in most people’s minds, even after he disbanded the group in the early 1980s, formed the universally reviled Style Council and later transitioned into his groundbreaking solo career that laid the groundwork for Britpop and delivered albums like Stanley Road and Wild Wood. One need only look at the Gallagher brothers from Oasis to see how large a shadow Weller casts. They invited him to play guitar on “The Swamp Song” and “Champagne Supernova“, and while Noel takes all his couture cues from his mentor, Liam continually copies the Modfather’s haircuts. So as his presence in the music industry continued to grow, Weller’s original rhythm section, bassist Bruce Foxton or drummer Rick Buckler, risked fading into obscurity.

So by finding a new frontman and adding an extra guitarist in order to go out and play the songs their fans want to hear, Foxton and Buckler are behind the eight ball even before they’ve stepped foot on stage. But it’s not as if Foxton or Buckler didn’t have anything to do with The Jam’s success: far from it in fact. Foxton, for instance, wrote a few tunes himself, including “Smithers-Jones” and “News of the World”, while also singing the group’s cover of The Kinks’ “David Watts”. And as last night’s scorcher of a show proved, this group is both bringing their collection of mod classics to a new generation of fans, and giving their original fans a reason the get out of the house on a Monday night.

Photos by Kyle Gustafson.