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We Were Promised Jetpacks at recordBar
We Were Promised Jetpacks Setlist
Slaughter Beach, Dog Setlist
Tour Dates
Feb 25 Indianapolis, IN HI-FI
Feb 26 Grand Rapids, MI The Pyramid Scheme Feb 27 Cleveland Heights, OH Grog Shop Feb 28 Lancaster, PA Chameleon Club Feb 29 Jersey City, NJ White Eagle Hall Read More
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After eight years away, the fans brought anything but their quiet little voices--
One our favorite Scottish bands, We Were Promised Jetpacks descended on a crowded recordBar in downtown Kansas City, for their first area show since 2012, and fans both longtime and newfound, made sure to give them an enthusiastic welcome back.
The venue (since we forgot to give some background about it when we saw Midge Ure there recently) began in a midtown strip mall fifteen years ago, only to have landlords force them to find a new location at the end of 2015. Re-located within sight of the Sprint Center, its current downtown location holds 399, including a smallish side balcony, with good acoustics (closer to the bar means hearing more chatter), friendly vibe and staff, and resembles a smaller version of Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Cafe.
Opening the evening was the curiously named Slaughter Beach, Dog, a Jake Ewald side project that sprung from the ashes of Philadelphia’s Modern Baseball, who are currently on an indefinite hiatus. After going it alone for two records, last August’s third full-length album Safe and Also No Fear (Lame-O Records/Big Scary Monsters) goes even farther into acoustic indie-folk and is the most different from his former band’s sound, though Ewald has now formed a band around himself, including MB bassist Ian Farmer and Superheaven drummer Zack Robbins.
Named after a small Delaware town Ewald passed when driving to his parent’s house, his low-key Dylan-esque music features lyrics that revel in the minutia of everyday life and celebrates the small victories of just getting through a common day, often told like a short story and reminiscent of some John K. (Weakerthans) Samson songwriting. “We’re having a good day” Ewald casually professed after the new, ‘Anything’- maybe musically an odd choice as opener for the sonically charged headliners, but SBG nevertheless won the crowd over as the forty-minute set progressed.
Lyrics were especially impactful on ‘Politics of Grooming’, which found Ewald admitting, “You wished that you would turn around and do what you're supposed to, but it's easier to blink and stare and stay”, and went back to 2017’s Birdie album to end the evening with ‘Phoenix’.
After a set change, We Were Promised Jetpacks began their eighty-minute headlining set… with an apology?! “We haven’t been to Kansas City since March 20, 2012, that’s our bad… it was all the bass player’s fault!” singer/guitarist Adam Thompson started, making of light of things, but also promising the best show possible, to make things worth the long wait.
Along with Thompson, childhood friends Sean Smith-bass and Darren Lackie- drums find themselves in their mid-thirties with seventeen years as a band together under their belt, and now recharged again with latest album, The More I Sleep The Less I Dream (Big Scary Monsters Records) created after the longest break of their career.
The other news is that the band has begun this new decade minus founding guitarist Michael Palmer, who departed last July, though the great news of fans of this whisper to a scream, wall of fuzz and volume sound, is that Frightened Rabbit guitarist Andy Monaghan has very ably joined on for the current tour.
Kicking things off with 2010’s ‘Human Error’, Thompson, in plain black t-shirt, immediately connected with the audience, stepping to the edge of the stage on both right and left sides to smile as he frantically strummed his guitar, flanked by Monaghan who mostly stayed in his corner and bassist Smith, sporting a Weakened Friends t-shirt to support their European opening band mates.
A dizzying Monaghan riff set ‘Repeating Patterns’ spinning and Thompson’s howling vocal range was on display for an emotionally wretched ‘Someone Else’s Problem’ with heads bobbing and some crowd pogo-ing during ‘Moving Clocks Run Slow’.
The slower ‘Not Wanted’ began with an echoed Monaghan strum but still managed to meticulously build up its sound profile and 2009’s ‘Keeping Warm’ was stretched out to over ten minutes, finding Thompson singing loudly with the mic down at mid-chest, compelling the crowd to clap along, and even getting drummer Lackie briefly on vocals, to the audience’s delight.
“This is a song we wrote when we were kids… I find this song boring… but every time you can play a place like this and see everyone singing along, it makes me feel brilliant!” Thompson admitted before one of the band’s earliest and biggest hits, ‘Quiet Little Voices’ which turned the small club into a Scottish drinking hall for six minutes as everyone chanted and cheered along.
‘Hanging In’ found Thompson vocally imploring, “Don’t Push me, don’t rush me” from the latest record and the encore-less set ended with the album-ender from their 2010 album, ‘Pear Tree’ which had Thompson singing its last verses without the aid of any microphone, completely unnecessary as his voice is still powerful enough to fill the room without additional electricity or aided volume.
“If you’d be my pear, then I’ll be your tree” Thompson sang on their closing number, and after eight years away from Kansas City and wondering if anyone would even bother to show up (the room was filled) We Were Promised Jetpacks (re)discovered that the musical kindred of their intoxicating Scottish sound, does exist and still blooms in the heartland of a country an ocean apart.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
Slaughter Beach, Dog |
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Slaughter Beach, Dog |
WWPJ Setlist |
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We Were Promised Jetpack |
We Were Promised Jetpack |
We Were Promised Jetpack |
We Were Promised Jetpack |
We Were Promised Jetpacks at recordBar, Kansas City (21 Feb 2020) |
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