(The sheer awesomeness of Adam Sabla's rock stance often drives Suzy Q into coughing fits. © 2009 Jennifer Perutka.)
Friday night’s Junior Major show at the Biltmore Cabaret was a classy affair. With the miniature chandeliers and moody lighting, the Biltmore can make you think you’ve time-warped back to the 40s and that some Sinatra-style crooner is about to hit the stage. Of course, overhearing some well-sauced girl behind me talk about how she “felt so indie” soon dispelled that illusion. But even being stuck here in the twenty-first century, it was still a night to remember.
The Good News kicked things off with some danceable and very catchy indie pop (sounding not unlike a drastically less annoying and more musically varied Hot Hot Heat) and The Paper Cranes came over from the Island to close the show, but with Junior Major giving their debut album Secret Magic a physical release, the night belonged to Suzy Q, Katy Major, Adam Sabla (now on bass), and their kick-ass new drummer Tony Dallas.
The show was billed as a CD release party (with the first 50 people in the door getting a free copy of Secret Magic) but when Junior Major took the stage, it was clear they had their sights fixed on new horizons. The band played only 5 of the 11 songs on their debut album (sadly, no “Dirty Birds”), instead concentrating on a slew of newer material as they prepare to start recording their second album in February. A lot of these newer songs see Junior Major breaking from the so-catchy-it-hurts formula of tracks like “Fool’s Gold” and embracing more melodic possibilities. In part, this might be because of new compositional methods - Suzy told the crowd that “Runaway” was originally written for the piano - or the new band dynamic, but I think it’s likelier Junior Major are eager to evolve as a band, throwing new curves into their songs just to see what works. “Hungerbabies”, which was introduced as “another song about lust; surprise, surprise”, certainly succeeds on this front. It’s just as rambunctious as the best Junior Major songs, but sleeker and more sophisticated in its execution.
That said, it was the classic Junior Major songs that carried the show on Friday. Mic problems haunted the set-opening “Boa Constrictor”, but were thankfully corrected in time for “I Still Don’t Hate You” (still Junior Major’s best song, and even better live with Katy Major adding a venomous “motherfucker” to every line in the verse). Meanwhile, “Surface Socket”, a song that was released on their MySpace long before Secret Magic came out, seems to have taken on new legs thanks to their enhanced rhythm section.
Though the show was a celebration of past triumphs, it’s clear from both the set list and the lineup changes that Junior Major is ready to machete their way out of the wilderness of Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons into a future more distinctly their own. Bring on the sophomore album.
The Good News kicked things off with some danceable and very catchy indie pop (sounding not unlike a drastically less annoying and more musically varied Hot Hot Heat) and The Paper Cranes came over from the Island to close the show, but with Junior Major giving their debut album Secret Magic a physical release, the night belonged to Suzy Q, Katy Major, Adam Sabla (now on bass), and their kick-ass new drummer Tony Dallas.
The show was billed as a CD release party (with the first 50 people in the door getting a free copy of Secret Magic) but when Junior Major took the stage, it was clear they had their sights fixed on new horizons. The band played only 5 of the 11 songs on their debut album (sadly, no “Dirty Birds”), instead concentrating on a slew of newer material as they prepare to start recording their second album in February. A lot of these newer songs see Junior Major breaking from the so-catchy-it-hurts formula of tracks like “Fool’s Gold” and embracing more melodic possibilities. In part, this might be because of new compositional methods - Suzy told the crowd that “Runaway” was originally written for the piano - or the new band dynamic, but I think it’s likelier Junior Major are eager to evolve as a band, throwing new curves into their songs just to see what works. “Hungerbabies”, which was introduced as “another song about lust; surprise, surprise”, certainly succeeds on this front. It’s just as rambunctious as the best Junior Major songs, but sleeker and more sophisticated in its execution.
That said, it was the classic Junior Major songs that carried the show on Friday. Mic problems haunted the set-opening “Boa Constrictor”, but were thankfully corrected in time for “I Still Don’t Hate You” (still Junior Major’s best song, and even better live with Katy Major adding a venomous “motherfucker” to every line in the verse). Meanwhile, “Surface Socket”, a song that was released on their MySpace long before Secret Magic came out, seems to have taken on new legs thanks to their enhanced rhythm section.
Though the show was a celebration of past triumphs, it’s clear from both the set list and the lineup changes that Junior Major is ready to machete their way out of the wilderness of Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons into a future more distinctly their own. Bring on the sophomore album.
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