The Irrepressible Spirit of Jukebox the Ghost
By Kim Bellware in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 15, 2010 7:00PM
We’ve gone back and forth since we first heard a track from Jukebox the Ghost’s first album Live and Let Ghost. The melodic, bouncy piano tune “Hold It In” was catchy as hell, with pianist and vocalist Ben Thornewill’s falsetto “whooo!” taking the song’s youthful brightness up a few notches. Still, it was a song that our 16 year-old self could really like, but was maybe a little too effortless and carefree for our older self to fully embrace.
Wednesday night at Schubas, the Philly-based trio finally make up our minds for us, even if the rest of the sold out crowd didn’t need the same convincing. Following the slam-dunk openers of Via Audio and Elizabeth & The Catapult, Jukebox the Ghost’s set was a non-stop rally of music that was nothing if not pure fun and joy. The band doesn’t play slow songs or sad songs, and even if they make an attempt at either, everything still comes out sounding weightless and sunny.
Plenty of music (and music we like) can be cynical and heavy—at times, probably unnecessarily so—which could explain our knee-jerk reaction to refuse the band’s uncomplicated charms. Getting completely lost in Jukebox the Ghost’s silly, sweet and unapologetically happy music seemed almost unbecoming of someone past their late teens (though for the record, the 18+ crowd appeared to skew very much 18 and not so much the “+”). That’s also not to say that anyone older than a teenager can’t appreciate happy, fun songs (maybe we’ve just been listening to too much of The Smiths lately).
Even so, if the band hadn’t been one iota as enjoyable, they still would have been impressively crisp and tight in their sound. New tracks like “Empire” and “Schizophrenia” easily mixed with the group’s older material, with “Under My Skin” and “Miss Templeton’s 7000th Dream” sounding as fresh as the recently-released tracks. It’s worth noting that, compared to their first album, the band sounds as if they’ve improved quite a bit. Thornewill and guitarist Tommy Siegel’s vocals blend into seamless harmonies while their playing was spot-on, even while the classically-trained Thornewill was pounding on the ivories (which is pretty often) or when Jesse Kristin was doing the same on drums.
One of the few complaints we’d register is that in fine-tuning their sound, the band’s songs often sound a little too much alike. There are plenty of bands that when listened to with eyes closed are indistinguishable from one another, which is certainly not the case for Jukebox the Ghost. Their stamp is obvious on every note of their music, which makes them distinguishable from other bands, just a little less so from song to song. Of course, when the songs are hook-laden and fun-filled, there are worse things that could result.
Toward the end of the set, the band borrowed one of Via Audio’s guitarists for a scuzzier, thumping version of “Hold It In” that didn’t seem to go on nearly long enough— the band joked that they’ve been trying to poach the guitarist from Via Audio, which if it ever happened, would probably yield some pretty great results. After a jam-session closer with both openers, an extended finale followed, with the band dancing, bopping to the music and having just as much fun as their audience (we clapped, danced and sang with the best of them). Though Jukebox the Ghost isn’t a bad studio band, their live show needs to be seen to truly appreciate them. Trying to resist the band, it turned out, was not only silly, it was an exercise in futility.