Philadelphia Grand Jury @ Jive, July ’09

I am not sure what I saw at this gig.

Philadelphia Grand Jury have a uniquely individual live show packed with quirky, simple pop songs played with obvious enjoyment and over-enthusiastic facials.

Between song communications to the audience via pre recorded samples had punters looking around the room for where the mystery 4th person was hiding as the three members on stage were clearly not speaking!

It felt like I had already heard a lot of their music before, perhaps it’s the simplicity of the songs? Either way I was singing along with simple choruses like “Going to the casino, what could possibly go wrong?”

Smashing your gear at the end of a show may be cliched and all, but the last song in their set saw bass player, bass guitar, mic stand and foldback speaker tumble forward, off stage and into the crowd where he proceeded to not only continue playing the song while on the floor, but then somehow make a beeline to the back of the room, (the long bass lead had by this stage come undone) out the door and onto Hindley Street where he was not seen again.

You’ve heard of a grand entrance? Tonight we saw a grand exit!