When Ben Thornewill, the vocalist for the Philadelphia-born, Brooklyn-based trio Jukebox the Ghost, abruptly stopped playing piano mid-song during the group’s Feb. 10 concert at The Southern, I had not noticed that his bandmate’s guitar had become disconnected. As Tommy Siegel, the second lead vocalist, tried to fix his instrument, Thornewill looked out to the audience with a laugh and proclaimed, “Now we’re at the bridge,” seamlessly continuing the song “Victoria” without audible guitar, demonstrating his improvisation abilities and genial demeanor. Even with less than cooperative instruments in the first half of the set — a curse from the “Grammy Gods,” according to the band, for having a concert on the same night — Jukebox blew the roof off The Southern. For a relatively obscure group, many die-hard fans were in attendance, including, but not limited to, a couple that had traveled alongside Thornewill, Siegel and Jesse Kristin (the drummer) all the way from Connecticut.
The small size of the venue certainly allowed for more personal contact between the audience and the band, allowing Thornewill to respond to all calls of love, support and even affectionate admonishing. When an audience member yelled, “You need to focus!” he retorted, smiling, “This is a serious band and we have serious songs and the next one is one of them. You need to stop laughing!”
The “serious” song he was talking about was “The Spiritual,” off the most recent album Safe Travels, which — though slower than their typical upbeat pop-rock brand — is one of the best tracks on the album.
Jukebox the Ghost took the stage after openers The Lighthouse and the Whaler, and guitarist Matt Pond. The Lighthouse and the Whaler had several catchy songs and a pleasantly surprising addition of a female violinist to their boy-band indie-pop vibe. Unfortunately, their set was only 20 minutes long.
Matt Pond was a decent, but not spectacular second act. Pond was the typical independent singer-songwriter, with most of his songs sounding the same. Though he has released eight EPs and eight LPs in his 14-year career, no particular tracks jumped out at me. In addition to his lackluster musical performance, Pond boasted little to no stage presence, occasionally introducing the next element of his set by saying, “This is a song.”
By the time Jukebox came on the audience was ready for a change in pace, and the band delivered. With their piano- and melody-heavy hits, people were jumping and dancing almost immediately. Their cover of “Somebody to Love” proved their stylistic similarity to Queen and was a perfect segue to their upbeat single “Somebody.” Though it’s hard to describe their genre, especially with the most recent album veering into deeper, darker territory, the band stayed true to their self-proclaimed optimistic and youthful sound.
For a Sunday night show, the concert was an impressive crowd-pleaser, and Jukebox well made up for Pond’s blandness. I would definitely recommend their 9:30 Club show in Washington, D.C. on March 16.
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