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We Were Promised
Jetpacks Flew
Into The
Grog Shop

On Thursday night, We Were Promised Jetpacks came to town to play the Grog Shop. The show was the band first time since 2016 and they are currently supporting late 2018’s The More I Sleep the Less I Dream. Which is a long time ago to be touring on a record for the first time but the band spent all of last year celebrating the tenth anniversary of its debut LP, These Four Walls.

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The four-piece opened the set with “Human Error”; the band commanded the crowd from the opening lines “I was writer…” Most of the set was made up of tasty grooves spanning all four of the bands albums. Lead singer Adam’s voice sounded stronger than it has in a very long time. The only down part of the set was during the high notes of “Repeating Patterns,” some people just don’t hit those Prince-level tones.

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The band usually draws a sizeable crowd when they have played in the past but the gig on Thursday was special as it was a sold out crowd, packed into the little venue. The admiration the band had for the audience fighting the cold and snow outside to fill the show was very noticeable and refreshing to see. Rarely does it feel as genuine as the multiple times Adam took to thank the crowd, say how much they appreciated everyone and how many people where there. And the crowd showered the band with the love right back. The crowd took the woos during “Moving Clocks Run Slow” to the next level.

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The middle of the set featured the grooviest part of the night with the building and building of sound during “Keep Warm” which segued into “Roll Up Your Sleeves” and “Sore Thumb.” A ridiculously effective 1-2-3 combo and you could feel the ground shaking from the crowd.

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Before ending the set, the band played its biggest song “Quite Little Voices,” which is a song that they’ve “[tried] to write a song that people like more but it’s not gonna happen, [expletive], sing along!” and the crowd did just that. They wrapped up the 13-song, 70-minute set with “Pear Tree” and for me it drove home what was the best set I’ve seen from this band.

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Slaughter Beach, Dog opened the show and their sound is much different then Jetpacks which was a nice quite start to the evening.  It’s nice to have a variation of styles of “indie rock” on a bill. It just becomes overly frustrating when a crowd can’t be quite, curb conversation and disrespects a band like they did; as good as they were for WWPJ they were equally as bad for the opener. Which takes nothing away from the song writing and performance the band displayed.

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Review by Troy Smith

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