Band post: Jukebox the Ghost
I am sooooo behind with band posts, and I actually like having these as reference a lot, so I am going to make a good faith attempt to catch up even though it's late and I should be sleeping. I've seen 4 concerts this semester, and this was the first, right before the semester actually started in January! It was Jukebox the Ghost.
The first time I saw Jukebox the Ghost was in... 2009, I think? It was the first real concert I ever went to, and they opened for Ben Folds Five. They were okay, super awkward but I liked some of their stuff, and I split costs on buying their album with a friend. Upon listening, I discovered that I liked pretty much exactly half of their songs, and that half I liked a LOT. Like Under My Skin, which was my Doctor/Master song when I was first obsessing over that ship. On the other hand, I absolutely hated the other half of that album, haha. What a weird band. They have two singers, and generally it's been Thornewill's songs that I prefer over Siegel's - but that's not a hard and fast rule, and I actually have trouble telling them apart. It's the tone/beat of the songs that catch me, not the actual voice.
Over the years, JtB has gotten way more polished and the ratio of enjoyable songs has gone up to like...70%? I really like that 70%. And hate the other 30%.
ANYWAY, I went with a couple fencing friends of mine, who are a bit younger but very cool to go to concerts with. I really appreciate people who are willing to follow me deeper into a crowd and don't get too lost.
There were two openers, and the first was Secret Someones - three women and a dude, and they did a lot of really good covers. They seem like they're pretty new and they don't have enough original music to fill the EP I bought from them, but it was pretty great rock anyway. A lot of energy, and I was interested to see whether the lead singer's hair was going to swallow any of her instruments (it was very beautiful and curly and large). Their cover of Blister on the Sun was great.
Then it was Twin Forks, which is the folk-rock band of the Dashboard Confessional guy. I liked them a lot, which was kind of a surprise given that I'm absolutely not a Dashboard Confessional fan. They have a really good vibrant sound, and Carrabba (the lead singer) was clearly having a lot of fun. He's got one of those huge smiles that he doesn't seem to show in photographs, but it really showed up in the concert. I like it when bands are happy, haha. I have the album now and a lot of the songs are kind of shallow after listening to them for a while, but they were new and good at the time.
And then Jukebox the Ghost! They've really stepped up their stage presence over the last few years and it was really cool to see how they've developed. They played mostly stuff from their new album, and it was fascinating to see how completely I can't tell the singers apart - based on my 'Thornewill is good' rule I had guessed a couple of my favorite songs as his when they were actually Siegel's. And a voice I hadn't been able to pick out before turned out to be the drummer, who came out from behind the kit to sing a solo (or a duet?) with a stuffed dog.
It was pretty cute.
There were still some moments where they got into the long slow songs that I really don't like, oh my gosh, but there were a lot of songs I really do like - including some of the stuff off their first album, yay. And then they brought ALL of the previous musicians back on stage for the last song, which I wish every concert would end with. They did a cover of Walk Like an Egyptian and it was just FUN.
Overall, a great time. Definitely more fun than the first time I saw them, when we were stuck in assigned seating and they clearly hadn't figured out how to talk to a crowd yet. Good job!
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/86895.html. Comment wherever you want.
The first time I saw Jukebox the Ghost was in... 2009, I think? It was the first real concert I ever went to, and they opened for Ben Folds Five. They were okay, super awkward but I liked some of their stuff, and I split costs on buying their album with a friend. Upon listening, I discovered that I liked pretty much exactly half of their songs, and that half I liked a LOT. Like Under My Skin, which was my Doctor/Master song when I was first obsessing over that ship. On the other hand, I absolutely hated the other half of that album, haha. What a weird band. They have two singers, and generally it's been Thornewill's songs that I prefer over Siegel's - but that's not a hard and fast rule, and I actually have trouble telling them apart. It's the tone/beat of the songs that catch me, not the actual voice.
Over the years, JtB has gotten way more polished and the ratio of enjoyable songs has gone up to like...70%? I really like that 70%. And hate the other 30%.
ANYWAY, I went with a couple fencing friends of mine, who are a bit younger but very cool to go to concerts with. I really appreciate people who are willing to follow me deeper into a crowd and don't get too lost.
There were two openers, and the first was Secret Someones - three women and a dude, and they did a lot of really good covers. They seem like they're pretty new and they don't have enough original music to fill the EP I bought from them, but it was pretty great rock anyway. A lot of energy, and I was interested to see whether the lead singer's hair was going to swallow any of her instruments (it was very beautiful and curly and large). Their cover of Blister on the Sun was great.
Then it was Twin Forks, which is the folk-rock band of the Dashboard Confessional guy. I liked them a lot, which was kind of a surprise given that I'm absolutely not a Dashboard Confessional fan. They have a really good vibrant sound, and Carrabba (the lead singer) was clearly having a lot of fun. He's got one of those huge smiles that he doesn't seem to show in photographs, but it really showed up in the concert. I like it when bands are happy, haha. I have the album now and a lot of the songs are kind of shallow after listening to them for a while, but they were new and good at the time.
And then Jukebox the Ghost! They've really stepped up their stage presence over the last few years and it was really cool to see how they've developed. They played mostly stuff from their new album, and it was fascinating to see how completely I can't tell the singers apart - based on my 'Thornewill is good' rule I had guessed a couple of my favorite songs as his when they were actually Siegel's. And a voice I hadn't been able to pick out before turned out to be the drummer, who came out from behind the kit to sing a solo (or a duet?) with a stuffed dog.
It was pretty cute.
There were still some moments where they got into the long slow songs that I really don't like, oh my gosh, but there were a lot of songs I really do like - including some of the stuff off their first album, yay. And then they brought ALL of the previous musicians back on stage for the last song, which I wish every concert would end with. They did a cover of Walk Like an Egyptian and it was just FUN.
Overall, a great time. Definitely more fun than the first time I saw them, when we were stuck in assigned seating and they clearly hadn't figured out how to talk to a crowd yet. Good job!
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/86895.html. Comment wherever you want.