Jet haven’t jammed together in almost seven years. The last time that the Melbourne rawk titans played a show was all the way back in 2010, supporting Powederfinger on their Sunsets farewell tour. But that’s all about to change, when the Cester brothers, Cameron Muncey and Mark Wilson officially reboot their Jet engines to support Bruce Springsteen on his massive arena tour of Australia next year.
Naturally, Jet fans have greeted news of the band’s reunion with a collective fist-pump, but the big question on everyone’s minds is: what does the future hold post-Boss?
Is this just a casual fling, or are the Rollover DJ tunesmiths getting back together for reals?
We spoke with bassist Cameron Muncey about Jet’s future – specifically, whether or not there is one – and the (likely frustrating) short answer is that – at this point – he knows about as much as we do.
“We’re just doing this because we think it’d be fun, you know?” the string slapper explains. “There’s no real grand plan behind it. I just think enough time’s past that people are sort of interested again, or we’ve disappeared long enough for people to not be sick of us anymore.”
He continues: “There’s nothing sort of planned beyond this and seeing what it’s like, you know? Seeing if we enjoy it. We’re doing this for ourselves, we just thought it would be a really fun thing to do.”
So for those of you holding out hope that the band may have been hiding out in a secret underground studio/bunker recording a surprise comeback album all this time, sorry guys. No dice.
But then again, that doesn’t mean we won’t be hearing new music from Jet at some point in the future.
“I would never say never,” Wilson says. “I can’t really say for sure either way. We might absolutely love [playing together again] – we might all get along really well and want to do it more. But then again we might just go ‘That was fun, I’m glad we did it but [that’s it]’.
“There’s no plan behind this, currently, there’s no agenda. It’s just purely ‘let’s do this, this’ll be fun’. Which I think is a good way to do things because it’s just – there’s no ulterior motive, you know? It’s fun. We’re just gonna play a sick show.”
So after a near seven-year live hiatus, what can fans expect from Jet live in 2017?
“Um, geez. Uh… I don’t know!” Wilson laughs. “I imagine that we’ll kind of focus on bringing it all back to focus on the tunes that we wrote. You know, we wrote some really good songs. And rather than getting carried away too much, just really getting up there and playing a really good rock n’ roll show without too many bells and whistles. I guess just like we used to?
“We haven’t played for so long,” he continues. “You know, it’s kind of even funny to be doing interviews again! Actually me & Chris [Cester, drums] were talking on the phone the other day and we were saying that we have the potential to be a better live band than we ever have been, because we’ve all grown up… we’ve all been doing other things, we’re not sort of sick of it because we haven’t been on the road – you know, we used to go on the road for like years on end – and we’re not bored with it.
“It’s just a fun thing now, because we’re not promoting a record. We’re just up there to celebrate and enjoy our songs and enjoy playing them,” he explains. “It’s been so long and it’s such a crazy concept that I can’t believe we’re doing it. For me – I’m sort of the same as you – I’m like ‘hmmm what’s it gonna be like?’ I really have no answers, I have no idea. But I’ve never looked forward to rehearsal more in my life.
“I just miss playing with these guys, you know? I really do. We were together for 10 years and we played thousands of shows so it’s just gonna be fun for us and everyone else.”
As for the reason why they chose Springsteen’s tour as the platform for their big reunion, the fellas put it simply: “When The Boss calls, you can’t say no!”
“We’ve sort of had offers to do other stuff and nothing sort of really felt like it was the right thing,” Wilson explains, adding that the lads all met up together for the first time since their split just a few short months ago in Melbourne.
“So we were all in the one city at the one time earlier in the year and we didn’t really talk about anything like [supporting Springsteen] – you know – we just had a fun time together. And then when this came about, it just seemed like it would be fun (laughs) There wasn’t a lot of – like – thinking about how much fun it’d be to go on tour with The Boss!”
It comes after Jet were hotly rumoured to be reuniting to support Aussie rock legends AC/DC last year, but – as Wilson tells us – they didn’t even get a phone call about that one. Although, that didn’t stop them from having a good ol’ troll.
“[Supporting AC/DC] was just purely rumours that I think we kind of like gave a bit of a nudge,” he says. “But to be honest, even if we did get offered that, I don’t think we would have done it. I dunno, the timing wasn’t right for us. And besides, supporting AC/DC is a different thing, you know? I wouldn’t wanna do that (laughs) But The Boss is different for me!”
Catch Jet warming up the stage for Bruce Springsteen on his Australian tour next January and February.
Tickets go on sale to the general public from Friday, 23rd September.
You can check out the full list of dates below.
Watch: Jet – ‘Seventeen’
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band ‘Summer ’17’ Australian Tour w/ Jet
Frontier Members pre-sale runs Tuesday, 20th September to Wednesday, 21st September (or ends earlier if pre-sale allocation exhausted).
Tickets on sale to general public Friday, 23rd September.
Jan 25, 2017
Perth Arena, Perth (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
Jan 30, 2017
Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena, Adelaide (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
Feb 02, 2017
AAMI Park, Melbourne (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
Feb 07, 2017
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
Feb 11, 2017
Hanging Rock, Macedon (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
Feb 14, 2017
Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
Feb 18, 2017
Hope Estate, Hunter Valley (All Ages)
Tickets: Frontier Touring
