We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ headlining tour was hitting Lawrence, Kan. the same night as the Oscars, which would have hurt the turnout at a lot of other band’s shows, but WWPJ are not your ordinary run-of-of the-mill rock group. This was the band’s first time to Lawrence and considering they’re from Scotland, fans know what a special treat it is for this band to make the trek here at all. The show was abetted that both tour mates of WWPJ, Bear Hands and the Lonely Forest, have been picking up a lot of buzz lately.
Fans of Brooklyn’s Bear Hands can rejoice that they can see the fresh act in less than a month when they return to Kansas City with Passion Pit on April 5. Don’t delay buying a ticket. That show is sure to sell out.
It’s near impossible to not fall in love with every aspect Seattle’s the Lonely Forest.
The guys tried to encourage the timid crowd closer to the stage before they began with a dedication to the fellow Seattle band, The Lonely H, whom had just played in Lawrence the night before. Since I could easily predict what followed “And the Oscar goes to…” from watching the show before coming to this concert, I expected I was going to be able to do a similar thing with the music at this show. There’s only so many ways to follow-up a C major chord after all. Yet somehow, the Lonely Forest managed to completely surprise with their unpredictable key and tempo changes—and to think that they executed these changes with seamless transitions. The only cue that they really even gave that the songs were about to take an unexpected turn was that the singer would rock back on his left heel or slightly bend his knees to spring out into a big jump despite the stage being extremely close to the ceiling.
What really hooks one on the Lonely Forest are their lyrics. The punky singer (personality-wise, not in looks, which were more akin to Rivers Cuomo), had a voice that seemed to blend that of the Mountain Goats with that of Noah and the Whale (sans accent). The lyrics he sang teetered between a sentimental, Seattle, Washington loving ballad to the quirky set closer “We Sing In Time.” Of their eight song set, I especially loved “Coyote,” which was complete with howls.
These guys live up to their hype. They just became the first signing to Chris Walla‘s record label, so expect a fantastic release from them soon.
I caught We Were Promised Jetpacks before in a cave and while they were good, it seemed like everything that could go wrong, went wrong. It was a fest, so there a strict timetable they had adhere and it seems like half their set was lost to a broken string that resulted in the singer awkwardly saying random words in his thick accent for the very, very American audience’s amusement.
Still a little bit awkward when speaking with the crowd – he was quite surprised when “sweat out a burrito got a laugh,” he definitely was more at ease with his performance this go around and their slight awkwardness and modest demeanor between songs is part of their charm.
When WWPJ actually starts playing songs, that shyness goes out the window and they are just a giant ball of energy. If it wasn’t for the accent, it’d be easy to think they were a completely different band from how they play compared to how they speak in between songs. Cymbal and guitar heavy indie rock tunes drew the crowd closer to the stage and it seemed that the music not only washed away the band’s shyness with time, but also that of the crowd.
“Roll Up Your Sleeves”
I did my best to keep track of the set list and I apologize for a few gaps in my memory:
1. Keeping Warm
2. ???
3. Roll up Your Sleeves
4. It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning
5. ???
6. This Is My House, This Is My Home
7. ???
8. Ships with Holes Will Sink
9. Short Bursts
