Dear Internet,
Why must good things always come to an end and why is that when it rains it pours?
The same week that late night TV fans had to bid adieu to CoCo, Kansas City was bidding farewell to JoCo.
The Beaumont Club Saturday night was as packed with people as the line up for the final Josephine Collective show was as packed with bands. In what might be a Kansas City first, people actually showed up early to see all openers, which might have been in part to most of the openers being the new projects of Josephine members.
Though all information listed 5 p.m. for the show, the first band actually started at 4:45 p.m., so showing up at 5:10 meant I missed Holy Mountain, but based on the size of the crowd and hum of kind words about the act when I arrived, it seems like it would have been a great set. They’re local to KC, so I’m sure I’ll get another chance to review them.
The first act I did catch was amazing and set the bar high for the rest of the groups. I had no idea this sort of group-this sort of music-existed in Kansas City. The group seemed to have the recipe for awesomeness down. They had the basics: drums and guitar. Then, they made it a little unusual by rounding the foursome out with a violinist and a cellist. But what really made them unique was what the drummer, Jared Bond did on the first song.
Jared already had me excited when he came out on stage because he is also the drummer for Josephine Collective and his group was the first of the offshoots that I was seeing. I guess he was inspired by the string players in his new group and he thought, ‘Hey, why not bow the drums.’ Can you imagine the shock of seeing someone whip at a bow to run along the cymbals? That’s something you don’t see every day.
The group’s sound, abetted by the Americana folk-style vocals and the driving riffs on the cello, was reminiscent of Murder by Death. They were all very skilled, but perhaps too much so — Chaski Zapata: loosen up. This isn’t a school orchestra concert. Granted, the group has only been together since fall 2009, so stage presence has room to grow, especially when the musical talent is already there.
The only real problem with this act is that they’re a little difficult to track down on the webs. At this show, all the promotional material billed them as Dolphin Lounge, but on stage it sounded like they kept introducing themselves as Root & Stem and then when I tried to track them online, they appeared to be known as Casa Real. I could understand being confusing and hiding if you are a shitty group, but these guys are good and I’m trying to shout about them from the mountaintops…well shout about them from the laptops at least. I’ve tried to contact them about their real name, so hopefully I’ll be able to update soon.
The indie pop trio Sailor Sequence followed the mystery band name group. I’ve talked about these guys before, but that show was colored by a drunken interference. It was kind of exciting to go from the folk rock into their cool piano melodies with crashing cymbals. They played five songs with each song better than the last. They’re like Explosions in the Sky meets Postal Service meets Twilight Sad.
They group glided through their five songs, taking just a few brief moments for singer Noffy to thank the crowd and sadly say that this would be the last in Kansas City, for awhile at least, while they adjust as some members move to Nashville. This group is fairly new to the scene, and already one of its greatest rising acts, so I’m sad to see them go. I look forward to seeing where the future brings them though.
The show was about midway through and it was time for two of the most anticipated openers. Ninety-Four and Black Oxygen. These two groups are the side projects of Josephine’s two lead singers, Alexander Sandate and Dillon Devoe, with Alex leading the Atlanta-based Ninety-Four and Dillon helming the Kansas City-based Black Oxygen. 
Watching both groups, it was pretty obvious that the Josephine spirit would at least live on. Heck Ninety-Four practically looked like they were Josephine with six members swarming the stage. The same sort of energy and crazy intense rock was present in the acts. Ninety-Four leaned a little toward the harder metal with screaming more prevalent in the band’s first few numbers. Black Oxygen has been around for awhile, but they’ve gone through a minor rehaul since Dillon has joined. Regardless of their changes, I think they’ll still leave metal fans gasping for more. I felt Black Oxygen had a bit more consistency and control than Ninety-Four, but I think any Josephine fan will easily be pleased with what will come out of either band’s camp in the near future. At least the audience at this particular show seemed equally pleased with both bands and responded with appropriate fist pumps, moshing and claps to the beat.
After the taste of Josephine given by the side projects, the audience was geared and ready for JoCo, but while the singer’s got a rest before their final performance (and time to change their shirts), a final opener took to the stage: Kansas City’s popular alternative rock group Queen’s Club.
This is about the third or fourth time I’ve seen these guys and I just didn’t get it. To me they’re like the KC Nickelback if Nickelback added a dance beat to all their tunes. What I mean by this is that I just don’t get why the music is popular and yet it inexplicably is. The kids just ate that shit up. They danced, body surfed and I was in disbelief over the amount of fists pumping the air. Seriously? I want to like these guys. My friends say I should, but I just don’t get it and this is one club I won’t be joining.
I love getting more bang for my buck and at $5 a ticket, this show easily gave buyers their money’s worth, but all these bands later and I was getting extremely anxious for the headliners. When the full Josephine Collective (including Bond) finally came out, it was complete chaos, but in a good way. The band already has a bajillion members, but their close friends and the other bands surrounded the group as well serving as cheering sections. If you’ve ever had the privilege, it was like being at Girl Talk show minus the toilet paper and instead of electronic remixes, it was heavy rock tunes in the vain of The Used, Say Anything and Taking Back Sunday that got the bodies moving. Even during some of the band’s few slower numbers, moshing and crowd-surfing ran rampant.
Josephine Collective know how to throw a going away party. As they blasted through songs from their Living EP and We Are The Air, crowd-surfers ran rampant causing security to sweat, but Josephine to smile as Alex and Dillon hardly missed a beat as they dished out hugs and high-fives to the kids landing on stage.
One of the highlights of the set came early with the popular single, “Living.” When the guys sang, “It just stops,” the entire mass of bodies intensely moshing, surfing and singing froze before jumping back into the chorus as raucous as ever. Other great moments included an impromptu and jokingly sung tune about this being the band’s final shows that included mentionings of mustaches and other things. I also loved when one of the Sailor Sequence guys joined for a tune, and of course, I loved the colouration that the softer “Lye,” brought to the set.
“Josephine, Josephine, get back together,” Alex and Dillon quipped back and forth. But then they pointed at that much like an ex-girlfriend, you can get back together and, “Yeah, the sex is great, but then you start dating and you remember why you broke up.” Sad, but understandable.
We wanted the show to keep going, but with their entire catalog pretty much done, the boys had to let the final tune fly.
“Freebird.”
Yes, the group began to play “Freebird,” but sans special appearances of Will Ferrell and co. It was all in good fun before they began their final song of the evening and of their band’s lifetime: “Pray for Rain.”
January 23, 2010 – Josephine Collective reunited and ended it the way it should have ended. They will be missed, but with Dolphin Lounge/Casa Real/Root&Stem, Fire for Effect, Ninety-Four, Sensational News Commentary Groove and Black Oxygen, we can all still continue the JoCo love for years to come.
