New York-based emo rock band Jets to Brazil played Thursday at Little Brothers, giving Columbus a taste of indie rock.
The sound of the foursome follows the indie blueprint to a “T,” working the style quite well. The guitar work is fuzzy and simple on the fast songs, and melancholy on the slow songs. The song progression is, again, simple and indie. The fast songs follow the basic verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus out type format. The slow songs start off softer and more gentle, then build through two or three verses, flourish, then out. Nothing spectacularly original, but not necessarily bad.
Jets to Brazil is Blake Schwarzenbach on guitar, keyboards and lead vocals, Jeremy Chatelain plays bass and adds backing vocals, Chris Daly mans the drum kit, and Brian Maryansky is on lead guitar.
The strength or weakness of any band lies in its ability to perform live. If the performance is no better than what is on the record, the audience will feel they were let down and would’ve been better off keeping its $10 cover charge and listening to the CD at home.
Jets to Brazil provides a live performance that is musically exciting and engaging, keeping the audience moving with the flow of the music, transfixed by the mellow guitar and flowing keyboards. As far as stage presence goes, Jets to Brazil leaves much to be desired.
Through the entire performance, Schwarzenbach stayed in essentially the same place, and played with what seemed like little interest in the crowd. There was no artist/audience banter, no real interaction with fans. Granted, the music is not the type where the front man pulls audience members on stage to shove them back into writhing, slamming mass of punk kids clustered at his feet and then dives into the sea of outstretched arms himself. This aside, a bit more interaction with the crowd would’ve made the show that much better.
There was also an encore after the band left the stage. Encores always appear a bit dubious. The original concept of the encore was that when an artist or band was through with their planned set, the audience would refuse to leave until they played a few more songs. Fans would shout and make noise until the band decided to get back on stage for “just one more.” Now, the encore is planned. The band will have a set list written out, and then also include what songs they are going to play for an encore.
Now, if the encore is part of the set list, as planned as the first song they play, how is this an encore? In the true sense of the word, it isn’t. The audience has been conditioned to expect the encore, and is disappointed if it doesn’t happen.
It is not just Jets to Brazil that is guilty of this encore fraud; it is nearly all music groups. Music groups are going to be forced to find something different to end a show than the planned, pseudo-encore.
