Contributed by Chris Gedos

Jamaica played a 50 minute set Saturday, April 23rd at Echoplex, their second show in just over six months at the Glendale, Ave. venue. Their debut LP, No Problem, co-produced by Xavier de Rosnay of Justice and Peter J. Franco, was touted in The Guardian as “pop perfection.” The Parisian trio dissects the three minute pop song Continental style on an album surprisingly more American than British in terms of genomic structure. Britt Daniel would be proud. I’ve listened to this album many times while pumping petrol, (which has quietly surpassed the $4 per gallon mark here on the left coast in recent months), so I attended anticipating an energized performance from Jamaica, but I left impressed with components of all three performances.

White Sea, the Morgan Kibby solo project, is really a democracy of 3 guys and 2 girls, 3+2 makes a quintessential L.A. coed five-piece! Kibby is well known as frontwoman for The Romanovs, so I knew a certain level of quality could be expected. However, I enjoyed White Sea’s set considerably more so than Kibby’s previous work. With a Cold War aesthetic real-time video of the band in the background, White Sea unleashed a barrage of quality songs. I’m a big fan of British histrionics and detected contagious levels of epic melodrama! There’s definitely some Chameleons UK in the instrumentation and some Mamas & Papas in the harmonies. But White Sea sounds cutting edge, so 2011, so 1967, looking toward past and future simultaneously, understanding that permanence is achieved through admittance of temporality.

(DJ cuts between sets: Rip It Up by Orange Juice, Digital by Joy Division.)

The scattered audience becomes impatient as The Chain Gang Of 1974 meticulously test the sound levels. Their indulgence is a performance in itself. I have no problem with a band wanting to sound right, but I think a certain level of expediency isn’t too much to ask for; either that or stumble on stage without giving a shit. But don’t fiddle around with your chemistry set! Anywize, I found the first half of their set almost equally indulgent, My Bloody Valentine meets Bowie but lacking the underlying joyousness of an MBV. The real-time video continued on the backdrop, but it’s lost its novelty by this point. Datarock does this shtick 100 times better. The issue is that The Chain Gang Of 1974 (lugubrious name) has a sound so ubiquitous; you have to play really exceptional songs to be remembered. I will admit, Matter of Time is hot. But they continued to request level adjustments in-song! It ruined the serendipity of the moment. One song sounded a bit like MGMT, which I think is generally a good thing, but I’m not sure if that’s what the band was going for. I think nerves were involved, as this was their first show of a weeklong jaunt with Jamaica, with gigs in SF (26th), Portlandia (28th), Seattle (29th) and Vancouver (30th). I will admit that their songs have solid arrangement and production values with boatloads of commercial potential.

(DJ cut between sets: Sumday by Hurts.)

Jamaica took the stage at approximately 11:40 PM. They waved to the audience and spoke a few pleasantries before ripping up Cross the Fader, the first song from the EP of the same name in addition to the No Problems LP. It sounds impeccably close to the recorded version. I never appreciated Jamaica’s 90s vibe before seeing them live. They just do a really good job of incorporating their various influences and making them their own. They’ve sort of assumed the designation electro-pop, but they are in essence and execution a live band playing American pop music surprisingly stripped of snazzy production values. They aren’t afraid to simply have fun and rock out.

There was a small technical snafu when Antoine’s guitar went mute, but the drummer improvised a kick-ass solo. The issue was quickly resolved and they were able to transition into their next song without losing momentum, a testament to the band’s professionalism, which even created a nice interlude between the first and second halves of their set. My personal fav is Jericho, with its nod to Sweet Jane by Velvet Underground. The roughly 250 people in attendance got crazy for the last three songs: Short and Entertaining, I Think I Like U2 and When Do You Wanna Stop Working?, each song better than the one before. I wish there’d been an encore or more than a couple new songs, but Jamaica’s showing Saturday night was top notch!

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Jamaica has stuck around L.A. for a few days after the show and will be spinning tonight (Monday 4/25) with DJ Kid Lightning at Harvard and Stone (5221 Hollywood Blvd). Doors @ 8pm, it’s free… be there!

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