Hey, Kat Coplen here. I'm a new Live Buzzer, and I have the privilege of sharing my very fun night at the Bishop with you all. Enjoy!
Jookabox and Prayer Breakfast brought light to a dreary rainy week this past Wednesday at the still-new venue The Bishop. Playing a relatively short two-band show (Rusty Zavitson was billed, but had to cancel), these two semi- local bands combined to bring a much needed burst of energy to Bloomington.
Prayer Breakfast started off the evening with an epic opening number performed for the very first time. It started out mellow and slow, and built into a huge whole band jam-fest, highlighting singer Mike Adams' soaring vocals. I wish that the vocals could have been cranked up to compete with the heavy drums and intense guitar, but overall Prayer Breakfast played with skill and consistency. They ended their set decidedly more rocking than they began, which was a nice intro for Jookabox's upbeat show.
Almost exactly a year to the date of their last Bloomington performance and fresh from the Pygmalion Festival last weekend, Jookabox rolled in with a massive disco-ball covered cylinder, a singing saw, and a super tight set. David 'Moose' Anderson, bassist and lead vocalist, anchored the performance with his bass and a powerful voice. Two multi-instrumentalists and a super solid drummer followed him on the psycho-folk journey he made.
Although Jookabox only played five songs (by my count), everything was fresh, new, and genre-defying. Their opener, "Phantom Don't Go," is equal parts funky folk, poppy hip-hop, busy reggae, and all fun. A few songs later, they performed their hit "The Girl Ain't Preggers" to huge crowd response (find the awesome accompanying online game here), a post-pregnancy scare blues-reggae jam. They closed out their show at a relatively early 11:30 PM, with pleads from the crowd for more. Alas, they did not (could not?) encore.
This show cemented for me Jookabox's fundamentally altered sound. Their previous album Scientific Cricket had more echoes of Appalachia than the city streets. David Anderson, although adding more members to his once-solo project, has evolved into something much tighter, cleaner, and to me, more interesting with the release of Jookabox's latest album Dead Zone Boys.
I realize after reading through this review how many adjectives litter my descriptions of Jookabox and their sound. You really just have to check them out for yourself. Luckily, they are based in Indianapolis and will hopefully come around to share more crazy-fun shows very soon. Oh, and if you find a way to really describe their sound...email me.
Cheers
Kat
