Jon Spencer has been making the same argument across every record he’s released and every room he’s played: rock’n’roll saves lives — not as a slogan but as a practiced theology. On Songs of Personal Loss and Protest, his first solo full-length since the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion dissolved in 2022, that conviction sounds less triumphant than usual, more like something a person grips when everything else has given way. “I’m in a time of spiritual reckoning,” Spencer told Spill Magazine. “The answer is always rock’n’roll.” He opens his 2027 winter tour January 14 at Funk ‘n Waffles in Syracuse.
About the Show
Songs of Personal Loss and Protest arrived June 12, 2026 on Shove Records, twelve tracks drawn from what Spencer describes as personal grief and political anxiety: the deaths of friends and family, a world he says has “gone topsy turvy where it feels like we are losing basic freedoms.” The lead single, “Orange Slice Blues,” he calls a “post-punk rockabilly rave-up,” hyper-driven garage rock that has been Spencer’s medium for decades. He performs here with bassist Kendall Wind and drummer Macky “Spider” Bowman, both of The Bobby Lees, a trio that has spent the past year touring together across North America, Europe, and Japan. The album follows the trio’s 2024 mini-LP Sick of Being Sick. Syracuse is the opening night of a 29-date winter run concluding February 13 in Boston.
Spencer built his reputation as founder and frontman of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the noise-rock trio he formed in New York City in 1991 with guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins. The band released nine studio albums before Spencer confirmed its end in 2022. Earlier, he fronted Pussy Galore and Boss Hog, and his career collaborators include Steve Albini, Beck, R.L. Burnside, Chuck D, and the Beastie Boys. More recently, Spencer produced the Grammy-nominated Death Wish Blues (2023) by Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, a record that also features Wind on bass. Spencer has called rock’n’roll “America’s true gift to the world — the sound of revolution.”
Venue & Logistics
Funk ‘n Waffles sits on South Clinton Street in central New York, a 200-capacity bar and music room of the kind where Spencer’s approach lands hardest. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; the show begins at 8:00 p.m. Admission is 16+ with ID; those under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Tickets are delivered digitally approximately two days prior to the event. All sales are final. Buy tickets