Concert Review: Bubbling without Boiling

Junior Boys w/Woodhands
Lee’s Palace
11.06.09

Since catching Woodhands at Hillside, I’ve been yearning to see them again.  I was wondering how they would fare, opening for an 90s-inspired down-tempo synth pop duo.  Although the Jr. Boys crowd weren’t actually prepared for their high octane brand of skat, intense beats and frequencies, they were going to get it full on.

I was in awe over drummer Paul Banwatt’s intense drumming style, relentlessly attacking the snare and cymbals with robotic precision.  Rather than keeping up with the electro-funk beats and heavy bass drummed up by Dan Web (vocals/synths/key-tar), Banwatt drove the rhythm locomotive, thus showing that you DON’T need to replace the drummer with a cold beat box. 

Dan Web was also fantastic in keeping the crowd pumped.  His tourette skats fused with his key-tar were memorizing and showing the hesitant crowd that Vancouver nerds can rock.  By the end of their set, when they performed ‘Dance” they just started to wake the crowd, leaving them wanting more.  It was a perfect set up for the headliner.   The duo are poised to release a new album in the new year, spending the winter to lock themselves up to finish it.  It should be a killer album, based on the tracks they were testing in the crowd tonight.

Junior Boys returned to the stage from a long Euro-tour.  “It’s been ages since we’ve been back home,” announced vocalist/keyboards/guitarist, Jeremy Greenspan. “It’s so nice to be back.”  It was an eclectic crowd who had clearly been following the band for a number of years now – they seemed to know most of their music.  The band quickly broke into their groove and tranced the crowd with their contagiously ambient electro-pop music.

It was a nice touch adding some visual interest through green lazers and an overzealous use of a smoke machine.  They played a solid set of tunes  stemming across many of their albums, including hits “In the Morning”, “Like a Child” and “So This is Goodbye”.

Many times through their set, it felt like the music simmered  just before boiling point – it needed just one more ‘umph’ to push them over the proveribal stovetop.  I take this as more akin to the late 80s/early 90s synth music they were pushing out, vs. their live performance… but compared to the explosive opening Woodhands set, the contrast was all the more poignant.

What didn’t help was their choice of a ballad to close their set, slowing it down to a close flatline.  “So we’re gonna leave you with a slow one.. we’ll just wimper away.”  Wimper?  Not exactly the best way to leave the crowd, and some decided to call it a night though the song – But most of the crowd didn’t look like they seemed to mind.  It still begs the question, why leave the crowd on such a downer?

Their one-song encore, however, did pick up the pace and resulted in a few people crowd even crowd surfing, making the song more upbeat than it honestly suggested.  It was clear they were ready to finish off in a party, regardless of what the Boys put out (many walked straight upstairs to the Dance Cave to let out the rest of their pent up energy after the show).  All in all it was still good show, playing in one of the best concert venues in the city.

REVIEWED BY: ROBB ENG

Add comment November 8th, 2009