Brightest Young Things

all photos: Sam Goldstein

Pretty and Nice take stage at about 9:45 and break into their busy punk-based pop-rock. Their movements onstage are a combination of the robotic Brandon Flowers (of The Killers) and the reckless Oxford Collapse, with Holden and Jeremy alternating between standing rigidly and falling on the floor. ‘Hideaway Tokyo’ was a quick, but lively example of this.

Between songs they feed off of each other’s friendly banter and thank Jukebox the Ghost for having them play with them even though they – “call them names backstage,” says Holden. “Yeah, we hate everyone,” interjects Jeremy, much to the audience’s disapproval - they boo.

Behind them Bobby is wearing goggles (remember the one’s Exactly wore last Wednesday? those ones) and begins the song that as Holden told a reporter backstage, “epitomizes Pretty and Nice”: ‘Piranha.’ I would have to agree, with its steady bass (thanks to Bo, NOT Belle) and cheery-sounding lyrics, but if you listen a little closer you realize that they are not about Piranhas at all.

After ‘Piranha’ Holden encourages the audience to “give yourselves a hand…later.” “…Holden, we’re trying to play a show,” Jeremy says as he fiddles with his mike stand. “You broke it!” Holden points out. “Oh really,” Jeremy replies as he attempts to fix it,”this next song is about how much I hate you.” They then proceed to attack each other with their guitars. Holden is quick to point out that “playing with our guitars fucks them up,” as he tunes his. (Really? I would never have guessed.)

As they move through their forty minute set, they play mostly off of their sophomore album ‘Get Young’ but also incorporate a couple of songs from their debut, ‘Pink & Blue,’ including ‘Wondering Eye’ and ‘Sea Legs.’ Towards the end of the set Holden asks if anyone has any stories, and one guy towards the front explains that his girlfriend broke up with him because he chose to come to the show instead of staying home with her. Holden empathizes and tells the poor fellow that they will play him a “sensitive song” and Jeremy turns his “sensitivity sensors on,” before playing ‘Solar Energy.’ They close a short but fast set with the catchy ‘Tora Tora Tora’ and ‘Nuts and Bolts.’ While they may not have had the room dancing - it may have been a bit off pairing them with the rock and roll Postelles and piano-rock Jukebox- they put on a wonderful show. For those that are into punk/garage-rock, be sure to see them when they come back through next year.

I don’t really know how long sound checks are supposed to be, but it seems that the second band at the Hotel always has a longer than comfortable sound check, that was certainly true for the Postelles.

Just looking at them, one doesn’t really know what to make of them, and if I was asked, I would have guessed, grunge or reggae, but the Postelles have the rock and roll- afro-beat sound that seems to be sweeping through New York (Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot – but without the strings). Daniel Balk’s voice is a throw-back to the masters of the 50’s and 60’s. They are more collected on stage and as their set progresses the audience fills the room and becomes more welcoming of their particular brand of pop, as they dance more. Songs like ‘Hey Little Sister’ and ‘Boy’s Bestfriend’ are sure to be favorites of next year as this bands popularity (inevitably) grows.

Jukebox the Ghost is one of my favorite DC bands, and while they already have large fan-base in DC, it’s great to see it is also growing nationally. They’ve been collecting rave reviews everywhere they go, and DC is no different. Piano-rock is not common, and it’s not easy to find a band that does it as well as they do.

They opened with a crowd favorite, ‘Good Day.’ Ben introduced ‘Ghosts’ by explaining that, “this song is about ghosts and houses and how that relates to the failing housing market.” Even the failing economy seems fun when they sing about it! ‘Victoria’ was a quick pleaser, it incorporates a rag intro, a sound not often heard in the pop of today. Of course, I am bias, I played the piano and am a sucker for anything that has a classical sound. This would be easy to do badly, but Jukebox the Ghost pulls it off with great ease, channeling everyone from Elton John to Scott Joplin. They have chemistry on stage and that is easily absorbed by the audience.

As the set moved along they incorporated clapping into almost every song. I don’t remember where I read it, but someone wrote that “clapping is the new power-chord” and as far as Jukebox is concerned, that seems to be true.

For ‘Under My Skin,’ Tom played an acoustic guitar, asked “how much can you fit under your skin?” And despite what could have been an opportunity to slow things down they kept going full speed ahead. Mid-song Shervin (their manager for this tour) and Tiffany (their videographer, see the video of for ‘Victoria’) poured balloons out into the audience.

Ben introduced their last song as “a special song we learned last year, it’s a medley of many, many songs,” ‘What’s This?’ from the movie ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ – Ben delivers vocals that have an uncanny likeness to Jack’s in the movie.

“Everyone knows we’re coming back, it kind of ruins the suspense,” Ben said before the encore. They ended a high energy set and show with the perennial favorite ‘Hold It In,’ accompanied by the audience singing along to every word.

Previously in Live DC:

• 5/24: LiveDC: The Adicts @ RNR Hotel
• 5/24: LiveDC: The Donkeys @ Black Cat
• 5/23: LiveDC: The Barr Brothers w/ Kishi Bashi @ The Hamilton
• 5/23: LiveDC: Damien Jurado @ Black Cat
• 5/23: Report: Soundbites 2012
• 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
• 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
• 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
• 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
• 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show