Recap: Jukebox The Ghost at The Rock And Roll Hotel

Philadelphia-by-way-of-D.C. outfit Jukebox The Ghost has to be getting sick of all the comparisons to Ben Folds. Sure, it’s hard to talk about the trio’s addictively bubbly, light-hearted piano pop without mentioning Folds’ name—and it doesn’t help that the group opened for the iconic piano man on a nationwide tour earlier this year. But if there’s one thing that the band proved during last Saturday night’s show at The Rock And Roll Hotel, it’s that Jukebox The Ghost is not just another saccharine pop band.

Navigating a set list that included ditties about nervous childhood crushes; an angry, vengeful God; urges toward self-immolation; and a three-part account of the apocalypse, Jukebox The Ghost definitely kept the crowd engaged for more than an hour. Perhaps as a result of the band’s D.C. roots (all three members graduated from George Washington University in 2007), each song from its debut LP, Let Live And Let Ghosts, prompted cheers and subsequent sing-alongs. But the true highlight of the night was the band’s unrecorded new work, most notably the synth-infused “Schizophrenia,” reminiscent of a Disney-fied Joy Division (or, say, The Killers).

Jukebox has been accused of being overly chatty, and that was certainly the case on Saturday night. But to his credit, frontman Ben Thornewill was sufficiently charming throughout the set, at one point even exchanging shirts with a fan in order to sing the last few songs in a Jukebox The Ghost T-shirt.

Opening for Jukebox was Chicago’s The Winter Sounds and Brooklyn sweetheart Jenny Owen Youngs. Youngs’ set was especially well-received and similar to the work of Jenny Lewis or an toned-down version of Metric. Near the end of the Jukebox set, Youngs and her band contributed to a few collaborations, including an inspired cover of New Order’s “Temptation.”

As Jukebox The Ghost came out for its encore, the show assumed a tone of sentimental farewell. After two and a half years of incessant touring, with occasional stops in the District, Thornewill said the band will soon take a break and begin working on a second album. In an attempt to lighten the mood before their last song, Thornewill joked that even he had “been sick of [the band] for about four months now.”

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