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If we were in the business of judging books by their covers, here's what we would assume about the line-up at last night's installment of the Six Points Music Festival: The Glory and the Majesty are emo, The Jaguar Club are a bunch of car enthusiasts, Life in a Hospital are bleak and brooding and Lejeune are French. Ultimately, only one of these assumptions proved correct; read on to satisfy your curiosity.
First up, Arlington's The Glory and the Majesty set the evening off on a high note with upbeat, melodic pop songs full of bouncy energy and straightforward chord progressions. The trio's ditties about sucky jobs and the alignment of the stars are reminiscent of Weezer and Fountains of Wayne, and frontman Alec Boyajy's mock-serious banter between songs made G&M the evening's biggest crowd-pleasers. G&M are so relentlessly chipper that even "Poor Old Shawna Grant," which Boyajy described as as "a sad song, performed in C-sharp minor, perhaps the saddest key of all time" was sad in the same way that Sublime's "Wrong Way" is sad: tragic subject matter packaged in such an earnest, optimistic way that it's damn near impossible not to shake your hips a little bit. So it's safe to say that The Glory and the Majesty are the opposite of emo.
Next up, Brooklyn's arty, new-new-wavers The Jaguar Club kept the momentum going, opening with thumping percussion on the aptly titled "Beat of My Heart," from their new EP, Ceci n'est pas le Club de Jaguar. It's easy to see why the band garners comparisons to the Smiths: bassist Yoichiru Fujita channels Andy Rourke's lush echo sound, and singer Will Popadic has Morrisey's ability to turn "goodbye" into a five-syllable word. The Jaguar Club's punchy, danceable rhythms belie some pretty somber lyrics, most notably on their best song, "The Sirens," which seems to be an oblique reference to former bandmates dealing with substance abuse. As for their name, we can only surmise that they wanted the word "Jaguar" in there as an excuse for some really cool album artwork. It should also be noted that Fujita was sporting the best rock-star haircut we've seen in recent memory.
Third on the docket was D.C.'s own Life in a Hospital, who are, in fact, bleak and brooding. Not to mention dissonant and whiny. The instrumentals were merely unremarkable, but Jedediah Olsen's screeching vocals pushed LIAH into the realm of offensive. It was one of those shows where, after two songs, the dwindling audience took their cellphones out of their pockets and began catching up on text messages. Based on LIAH's myspace, we were expecting to enjoy pensive, piano-heavy music and Thom-Yorkey singing. What happened last night is anyone's guess, but our best bet is that Olsen was possessed by some sort of poltergeist. Jedediah, we'd love to give you a second chance just as soon as you get that excorcism.
Sadly, our carriage turned into a pumpkin before Lejeune took the stage. Based on DCist Tom's opinion, we're guessing we missed an impressive performance. We're looking forward to checking out the pop-rockers' forthcoming album, For Club and Country, and perhaps finding out their combined level of Frenchdom.
Photo of The Jaguar Club taken from the band's myspace page.
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Lejeune's performance was impressive. While the crowd did dwindle with the completion of LIAH, this did not keep Lejeune from delivering, yet another, great set. They are a much needed breath of fresh air for the DC music scene. Check it.
The Jaguar Club is amazing...and for the record, i think their name is based on something darker than cats or cars.