Junior Boys
Higher Ground April 8

Patrick Smith | contributing writer
psmith4@smcvt.edu

In front of a particularly small crowd on Easter Sunday in Higher Ground’s Showcase Lounge, Jeremy Greenspan led the Junior Boys in putting on a show that wasn’t diminished by the crowd size. For their part, the audience wasn’t uncomfortable with their role either, as only a few people hung back away from the stage, and most of them were brought forward as the show progressed. When the band started in on certain favorites, such as “Like a Child,” the crowd managed impressive cheering for its size.

After relieving some of his own awkwardness with a joke referring to themselves as the “Jew band” as compared to the gospel band in the other room, Greenspan opened with “Count Souvenirs” off of their latest release. The first few songs didn’t vary much from the album cuts, but showed signs of what was to come. A duo on the album, Junior Boys added a third member, on drums, for the show. This change from electronic drum machine to a full, real, drum set was an effective change. The small variations in the synthesizer and prerecorded sounds were enough to make things a little more interesting, though they still seemed to leave the man in charge of the electronic aspect of the show, Matt Didemus, supremely bored throughout. Responsible for the Junior Boys' iBook on stage, he encouraged the idea that it is possible to be more hip by your computer.

A lineup change from the first album to their second didn’t prevent them from playing a couple of older songs, all received cheerfully by the audience. After one of these older songs, Greenspan put down his bass and picked up his guitar for a number of songs. This change alone makes it worth hearing a Junior Boys live show. With an album so based in electronic music, it is easy to fear that the live show would be nothing different, and after leaning towards more and more change during the set, the guitar work finalized things. Alone, it wouldn’t have been impressive, but it offered something different without taking the songs too far away from what is to be loved on the album. Greenspan’s guitar playing brought a bit of funk that isn’t really found on the recorded tracks. On “Double Shadow,” he took it even further. Here, his playing was very sharp and would have been a good performance without bothering to compare it to the album. After this, he took the bass back for “So This is Goodbye” and the rest of the set.

After finishing, they decided to keep the crowd from straining themselves in the effort to garner an encore. For this, the foot or two of space between crowd and stage was unacceptable and Greenspan motioned everyone closer until they were pressing up against speakers. The casual listeners quickly, and briefly, turned into awe-filled fans reaching up to touch their favorite rock star as he slapped as many hands as he could. This was immediately followed by a conversation about his shoes, and a brief fashion show for those unfortunate souls who couldn’t see them. This ambivalence didn’t carry over into the performance and the encore was as good as the rest of the set.

Never seeming nervous while playing, every time Greenspan paused to chat with the crowd, it became apparent that he was uncomfortable because of the small crowd size and would try to cover it with humor. Fortunately, he is a funny guy and because of the small crowd was able to carry on conversations that were more interactive than most concerts. The benefit from the intimacy was the casual, laid back nature of the affair. The crowd danced a little when they felt it, and both sides enjoyed the night without exerting themselves. Along with this casualness, Junior Boys and the crowd cared enough to make the show into a good night of fun and music.