Junior Boys w/ Jessy Lanza and Borys
Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA
03.11.16
There’s a small table in the middle of the main floor. It’s loaded with gear, modular synthesizers, cords everywhere. Eventually, a sweep of dark hair swept forward over his face, Borys appears and takes his place. Throwing samples and building beats until he’s dancing behind the deck – an arm twitch here, a head band there – he engages the crowd enough to come and dance with him, creating a perfect set up for the beat-filled night.
Up next, Jeremy Greenspan collaborator Jessy Lanza takes the stage, backed by Tori Tizzard on drums. The Ontario singer-songwriter presented beat-heavy R&B that ranged from bedroom rock to dance-floor ready, with lots of smooth choruses. While Lanza seemed innately uncomfortable in front of the crowd, and there were some tracks that just didn’t fly, there were moments of ultra-shiny brilliance in her set that speak volumes to what Lanza is capable of. Her sophomore album OH NO is set for release this May.
And this is where the night picks up. There’s a high-pitched feedback that pierces through the theatre as the crowd re-congregates on the floor, vying for the best location from which to both see Junior Boys and have enough room to dance. Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus are joined by a drummer for the set, and all three have a pretty chill stage presence throughout the night.
They open with a cover of John Martyn’s “Some People Are Crazy” before launching through tracks from their February 2016 release Big Black Coat mixed with old crowd favorites. While they start up-tempo – which has the crowd dancing immediately – and “Double Shadow” gets everyone clapping, they bring it down a bit and fuzz it up. Old tracks like “Birthday” and “In The Morning” get everyone excited, but it’s also great to hear them de-gloss some with new tracks like “Over It” and “C’Mon Baby.”
Their new work is jaggedly fluid, and they seem comfortable with their presence and their work, especially after a five year break where each took on individual projects. As Greenspan notes, this is the band’s first show in America in about four years and they’re “Pleased to be here for a couple reasons: one, because it’s a great city. Just like a better Vancouver, and two, this other reason is a little brown-nosing but this town has the only commercial radio station in the continent that plays us.” Earlier in the day they stopped by KEXP to record an in-studio performance.
Catch up with their clear, pulsing beats and Greenspan’s smooth falsetto as they tour throughout the states and Canada for the next several weeks.
Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Sunny Martini
Junior Boys
Jessy Lanza
Borys
