popwreckoning

I readily admit it: I started to become a wee bit giddy upon seeing We Were Promised Jetpacks‘s curly-haired, hoodie-wearing guitarist Michael Palmer on the side, itching to get onstage and fiddle with his guitar already. All the memories of the band’s first appearance in the nation’s capital, an amazing but brief set at the Black Cat last October (on the Fat Cat Records Tour), came rushing back. Then, the audience was mixed in their loyalty, either to them or their labelmates Brakes (BrakesBrakesBrakes in America) or the Twilight Sad. This night however, there was no question that all 200 exuberant ticket holders at the sold-out show Saturday night at D.C.’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel were present to see them. But before getting to this point, let me backtrack to the evening’s two supporting bands.

Typefighter is an unsigned, local to Washington five-piece, describing their musical genre on their MySpace as being of folk, melodramatic popular song, and indie. I hadn’t gotten the chance to listen to their songs there prior to the concert, so I really didn’t know what to expect. But one look at the instruments onstage (banjo, ukulele, melodica, and keyboards, along with the usual guitars and drums) made me think, “homegrown Fanfarlo?”

I felt further confirmation of this as two songs in, the “da dum-dum” rhythm of one of Typefighter’s songs reminded me of Fanfarlo‘s “Luna.” While Simon Balthazar of the London-based folk pop band has said the title of their debut album Reservoir is related to a previous fixation about bodies of water, it appears this Washington band likes writing about boats and oceans. This is evidenced by songs like the metaphorical “Ocean Floor,” with despondent lyrics like “I’m waiting for this ocean floor to dry” and talk about sinking boats with holes. (Kind of weird that the Jetpacks have a song on a similar theme to this too, huh?) But trust me, the music itself is a lot more upbeat, with handclaps aplenty. Probably the most impressive was their set closer, “I Wrote This Song for You,” all band members singing along and snapping their fingers as lead singer/guitarist Ryan McLaughlin played ukulele.

Singer Ryan McLaughlin and multi-instrumentalist Mary Voutsas exchanged friendly, jokey banter with each other and with the audience between songs, lending a warmth pretty much absent from the other two bands’s sets. I noticed that among the many tattoos McLaughlin has on his body, he has a lighthouse on his left forearm. With lighthouses being beacons of light amidst dark and stormy seas, I feel like Typefighter just might have what it takes to shine, break out of here, and do well.

Cincinnati’s Bad Veins took a bit longer to get settled in to play, as singer/multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Davis needed just the right setup to anchor a telephone receiver in a mike stand. You read that right – a telephone receiver. Quirky is a good way to describe the rose motifs on the band’s drum kit and their telephone case and their third “band member” on display, an antique reel-to-reel tape player they’ve named Irene. With the mike stand problem resolved and Irene queued up, the duo came on to “Hail to the Chief,” leaving me wondering if only we as D.C. residents received this kind of welcome from them. Interestingly, Irene was used to add piano, horns, and strings that the two men onstage would not have been able to achieve otherwise.

Drummer Sebastian Schultz meanwhile was too busy pounding away on his drum kit (a kit I might add that was outfitted with four high-hats and cymbals in total). Schultz certainly earned his keep Saturday night, delivering powerful beats to go with Davis’s often theatrical vocal approach. At times, his voice would run emotional, sounding like James Allan of Glasvegas, but then all of a sudden turn shouty, like over the top Tyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects.

And I haven’t forgotten the telephone. All bands have a gimmick, and Bad Veins have a telephone that Davis sings into for some songs like “The Lie” and “Afraid.” All things considered, the telephone effect worked better than I thought, not only because of its uniqueness in a rock show, but because Davis would sing into the receiver and it sounded just like you would imagine hearing someone singing to you through the line. However, my favorite song of theirs, completely devoid of the telephone, was “Falling Tide,” a reminder of just how good rock ‘n’ roll can be when you’ve got forceful lyrics, killer guitar, and wicked backbeats.

11:30 rolled around and as I mentioned early on in this review, seeing guitarist Michael Palmer smiling and raring to go made me smile. Scotland is doing very well musically in my book, producing both Camera Obscura and We Were Promised Jetpacks, definitely two of my faves as of late. Good bands have excellent musicians or a charismatic singer. Great bands like the Jetpacks have both. The band’s opening number Saturday night, “Keeping Warm,” came in like a hurricane, the guitars of Palmer, lead singer Adam Thompson, and bassist Sean Smith wailing, and Darren Lackie beating his drums so furiously that one of his drumsticks broke and the broken piece flew into the air, landing near the front of the stage. (You know what they say about physics and momentum.) Even before Thompson uttered a word, the combined sound was so loud, it was as if the club was a jetliner and we were about to take flight.

The effect successfully built up the crowd’s excitement for seeing these four lads from Edinburgh, who played most of the songs off their well-received debut album These Four Walls. Before launching into hit “Roll Up Your Sleeves,” a smiling Thompson said to us, “thanks to everyone who came to the Black Cat show [last October]. That was a great show for us!” The crowd cheered appreciatively, one woman shouting back, “tell us a Scottish joke!” (This was most likely in reference to some jokes the Black Cat crowd had with Thompson the last time they were in town.) He considered this for a half-second before replying with a wide grin, “a Scottish joke? Fuck off!” Laughter.

I expected many in the audience to know and sing along to all of the words to songs like “Quiet Little Voices” and “Ships with Holes Will Sink,” but I was surprised when some provided loud impromptu backing with their voices on the instrumental portions of the set closer “Short Bursts.” Throughout the set, Thompson sang with the same never-wavering conviction displayed on their album that has no doubt made the band a hit with many music fans. The 10-song set included two new songs that unfortunately at this time have unknown titles, as I could not find the band nor their merch people afterwards to buy their new EP. But no matter. I expect the Jetpacks to make a triumphant return to D.C after becoming more of a sensation in the UK and Europe than they already are and the release of a successful second album. We Were Promised Jetpacks, the sky’s the limit!

We Were Promised Jetpacks Set List:
Keeping Warm
Quiet Little Voices
Moving Clocks Run Slow
New song (presumably not on the new EP)
New song from new EP
It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning
Roll Up Your Sleeves
This is My House, This is My Home
Ships with Holes Will Sink
Short Bursts

Tour Dates:
Feb 15 – Knitting Factory / Brooklyn*
Feb 17 – Casbah at Tremont Music Hall / Charlotte*
Feb 18 – Masquerade / Atlanta*
Feb 19 – The End / Nashville*
Feb 21 – Hailey’s / Denton, TX*
Feb 23 – Rhythm Room / Phoenix#
Feb 26 – Troubadour / Los Angeles#
Feb 27 – Slim’s / San Francisco#
Mar 01 – Biltmore Cabaret / Vancouver#
Mar 02 – Neumo’s / Seattle#
Mar 03 – Doug Fir / Portland#
Mar 05 – Urban Lounge / Salt Lake City#
Mar 06 – Hi Dive / Denver#
Mar 07 – Jackpot / Lawrence, KS#
Mar 08 – Waiting Room / Omaha#
Mar 09 – Varsity Theatre / Minneapolis#
Mar 11 - Lincoln Hall / Chicago#
Mar 12 – Grog Shop / Cleveland#
Mar 13 – Summit / Columbus#
Mar 14 – Radio Radio / Indianapolis#
Mar 15 – This Old Rock House / St. Louis#
* with Bad Veins
# with Bear Hands

We Were Promised Jetpacks: myspace | We Were Promised Jetpacks Plan Winter 2010 Tour of North America | @ Black Cat | @ monolith
Bad Veins: website | myspace
Typefighter: myspace

The Fat Cat Records label is a Brighton, England institution; they have signed highly divergent, up and coming acts from across the globe, from Sigur Rós to Vetiver, from Frightened Rabbit to Vashti Bunyan. So I took much delight in hearing that the label was sending several of their signings over to North America for a tour. For the Washington date, the three acts being featured at the Black Cat were the Scottish bands We Were Promised Jetpacks and the Twilight Sad, and the English band Brakesbrakesbrakes.

Glaswegians We Were Promised Jetpacks were first up. The band recently put out their debut album, These Four Walls, and they’ve been garnering a lot of attention stateside. I loved their song “Roll Up Your Sleeves” the first time I caught their video online. Singer/guitarist Adam Thompson looks like a Boy Scout, but boy, he sure doesn’t sing like one. They’re rock, they’re punk, they’re everything in between. They’re also very young guys, which probably explains band members joking with each other between songs and Thompson’s telling us about the stench in their tour bus when its generator broke down, leaving them without electricity or running water. In response to this, someone in the audience quipped, “Just like Scotland!” to which Thompson replied with a sideways laugh to bassist Sean Smith, “They think we run around in kilts back home, don’t they?” There was a collective laugh throughout the club and then the band launched into “Quiet Little Voices” with Thompson’s searing vocals: “In any which direction, call me / I will run for you! / I’ll come for you! / I’ll die for you! / I’ll come for you!”

With Thompson and Smith, Michael Palmer (guitar) and Darren Lackie (drums) are an explosive unit live. Sometimes you aren’t sure how the first act of the night is going to be received; I’ve been to some gigs where you could hear people’s conversations clearly in between the songs because there are so few people present and most of them are not really paying attention, just taking up space and waiting for the headliner who comes on later. This was not the case with the Jetpacks’s set at all. Despite the band order, it appeared that many of people present were there specifically for their set and alighted as soon as they were done. A lot of people sang along, and Thompson was so happy with the reception and so many people showing up for their set, he lit up the room with his smile and said by far this was his favorite night in America so far on this tour. Mission accomplished, Washington.

After brief shifting of equipment and gear, the stage was set for the arrival of Brakesbrakesbrakes. In my head I’ll always think of them as Brakes because that’s what they’re known as everywhere in the world except America (courtesy of a Philadelphia band who had already called dibs on the Brakes moniker here in the States), so they will be referred to as Brakes for the rest of this review. Of the three bands, I’m most familiar with Brakes’s back catalogue, and they’ve never played Washington before, so I was excited to say the least. Their third and latest album, Touchdown, was released back in April.

They’re an extremely versatile band, with songs running the gamut from folky, country rock (“On Your Side”) to punk (“Porcupine or Pineapple”) to more straight forward rock ‘n’ roll (“Don’t Take Me to Space [Man]“). Singer/guitarist Eamon Hamilton led Brakes (with Thomas White on guitar, Marc Beatty on bass, and Alex White on drums) on a rousing set of 16 songs across their three albums. “Hey Hey,” a raucous, guitar-heavy tune from Touchdown, was a joy to hear live finally, along with “Don’t Take Me to Space (Man),” my favorite off the new album. One enthusiastic fan exclaimed that being that we were in D.C., the band had to play “Cheney,” a song from the band’s first album Give Blood; it’s a five-second tirade against our former not-so-beloved vice president. Hamilton rewarded the fan by asking him to “count in” the song for them. It went over so well that another fan was chosen to do the same, to even louder audience cheers.

Brakesbrakesbrakes set list:
The Most Fun
Shut Us Down (Camper Van Beethoven cover)
Hey Hey
Ring a Ding Ding
On Your Side
All Night Disco Party
Porcupine or Pineapple
Hold Me in the River
Worry About It Later
Why Tell the Truth (When It’s Easier to Lie)
What’s in It for Me?
Isabel
Don’t Take Me to Space (Man)
Cheney (2x, counted in by two different audience members)
No Return
Jackson (Jerry Leiber/Billy Edd Wheeler cover)

Two hours after we started, it was now time for the Twilight Sad. We Were Promised Jetpacks cite the Twilight Sad as one of their influences, so it’s quite appropriate to have them on the same tour. The band just released their sophomore album-length effort, Forget the Night Ahead, here in the U.S. last month. Singer James Graham decided to begin their set with a decidedly-toned down mood compared to the acts that came before: he clutched his mike as if his life depended on it, and knelt down on the floor as “Reflection of the Television” chugged to life thanks to his fellow bandmates Andy MacFarlane (guitar), Craig Orzel (bass), Mark Devine (drums), and touring keyboardist Martin Docherty. They remind me a bit of the Horrors, with their swirly guitars and keyboards set off by moody, pensive lyrics; “The Room” and “I Became a Prostitute” are good examples of this. I didn’t felt the same kind of energy from them that I did from the previous bands. Maybe it was because it was a Monday night, it was late, and it was Washington, but they just didn’t set me alight.

Stay tuned for an interview with Marc Beatty and Eamon Hamilton of Brakesbrakesbrakes coming soon!

We Were Promised Jetpacks: myspace
Brakesbrakesbrakes: website | myspace
The Twilight Sad: website | myspace