A friend suggested we see JAWNY so we did. I was not familiar with the Philly- based artist who clearly is more famous than I
I couldn’t find much in terms of why on his Wikipedia although it did mention he dated Doja Cat. I could not tell you a Doja Cat song but I know she is one of the biggest stars in music now.
I also could tell you that at least by Spotify numbers, he eclipses any of my indie heroes like Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Pavement, even more than Violent Femmes or the Velvet Underground.
I do know that by the old trademark, that I do have at least two friends that were fans. I also knew the cliche is to “cram” in a band’s discography before seeing them perform
It would not have been hard to do- he has a new album and maybe another two albums or so of material. Nor do I think anything is wrong with that, but I wanted to come in and experience with little preconceptions.
I did spend some time with his song “Take It Back” which is a collaboration with Beck. In fact my first impression from this song and snippets of others is that JAWNY was a bit of a similar polymath.
My thoughts of the concert start with opener 18 year old Adan Diaz, who comes across as the new generation of musicians-more bedrooms and computers, less garages and amps.
I am struck by some probably obvious things.
First, the crowd was probably the largest and most energetic that I have seen in some time (from the perspective of I really only attend mid size or smaller venues in a Top 75 sized market - comparable to say Salt Lake City or Tallahassee or Little Rock, so not large).
But the crowd was young and excited. Certainly a better response than at shows of bands who had made their name on 30-40 years of performing.
JAWNY still perplexes me so I went back to the internet with the only clue being that one of his songs broke out as a Spotify Fresh Find
I feel 100 years old but I suspect the youth has word of mouth and shared media, and there probably wouldn’t be much difference to an outsider attending a Depeche Mode concert in the late 80s
JAWNY is a heck of an energetic performer. He plays guitar and is accompanied by a bassist and drummer, and surely something electronic in the background. I can’t find any faults in his frontman ship.
Musically, he wasn’t my taste though I wouldn’t have guessed why.
The clues were in his intro (Killers’ “Mr Brightside, his Shawn Mendes jokes and his choice of a Taylor Swift cover.
JAWNY might not be my favorite but I can see why he has won over a legion of fans. He’s good at what he does.
Just what he does is way more poppier than i expected. I had seen a lot of Strokes references on his reviews in the NME and the Guardian, but it would be more accurate to say he sounds like the latter day descendents who took the sound more mainstream and had way more chart success- band like Glass Animals and Neon Trees.
The second thing that struck me had to do with the songs. As a white middle class Gen Xer, my generation “discovered” rap. Aerosmith and Run DMC of course, but more importantly also a class that was as likely to listen to NWA or Tupac as it was Pearl Jam or Aerosmith. Gen Y combined genres even more with the popularity of Nu Metal.
But both artists- the opener and JAWNY - a more seasoned 27 year old- are indicative of a generation that doesn’t think about genres. Rock, hip hop, dance, pop- all fluidly blend together.
I like JAWNY at his best when he is playing the more new wave-y stuff. I can picture him touring with Cheap Trick in the 70s or an 80s glam band. I hear Oughts hopefuls Rooney and modern day chart toppers AJR.
JAWNY seems much more in line with the poppier alternative bands of the last 20 years - Foster the People, lovelytheband. The energetic “Take it Back” is a highlight, so they do a second version to close the show.
Critical fanfare or commercial success? Both show high probability in JAWNYs future.
No comments:
Post a Comment