Postmodern Jukebox

A few weeks back – hilariously, I started writing this only a few days after the gig itself, but (as usual) I got distracted and didn't finish it – the phenomenon known as Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox came to town. What is Postmodern Jukebox? Well, it's a musical ensemble, led by Bradlee, who do interesting covers of both classic and recent pop/rock songs.

Here's a few examples:

I first came across the YouTube channel when I was looking for some information on Puddles Pity Party, who was performing at the 2015 Adelaide Fringe festival, and found that he'd done some numbers with them – most notably a cover of Lorde's Royals:

This, of course, is amazing. So, I subscribed to the YouTube channel and have been enjoying regular updates ever since.

It never occurred to me that they might ever tour Australia – or, at least, the part of Australia where I live – so it came as a huge surprise when the email telling me they were coming to Adelaide arrived in my inbox. I bought tickets pretty much straight away.

Given that they're mostly known via YouTube, I wasn't sure exactly how large the audience would be, but I was pleasantly surprised when we got to HQ and found a reasonable number of people there – probably not as many as there could have been (or were there when I saw Death Cab for Cutie there a few weeks prior) – but it was decent.

Those of us who were there were treated to something pretty damn amazing. As good as they are in the YouTube videos, they're even better live thanks to their dynamic personalities and boundless energy. While all the singers -  - were great I was particularly blown away by Haley Reinhart; her doing Radiohead's Creep is in the three I posted at the top, but here's her doing Oops...I Did It Again:

Some of the other songs were:

Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes)
All About the Bass (Meghan Trainor)
Take Me to Church (Hozier)
Burn (Ellie Goulding)
Shake It Off  (Taylor Swift)
Fireworks (Katy Perry)
Roar (Katy Perry)
Such Great Heights  (The Postal Service)
Sweet Child O’ Mine (Gun 'n' Roses)
I Believe in a Thing Called Love (The Darkness)

Afterwards we hit the merch table; we timed it well 'cause we were able to get a picture with Scott Bradlee:

I'm the one the middle, if you weren't sure. And no, I don't know why I've adopted that particular expression - well, other than because I hate posing for photos and have no idea what to do when forced to 'pose'.

Here are the shots of the gig and the band:

It wasn't just music; they brought dance Sarah Reich with them as well - and she's amazing. If you watch the Bad Romance video at the top of the page, you'll see. Breathtaking tap work.

At one point Scott Bradlee did some solo work on the keyboard, taking requests from the audience and mashing them together; it's been a while now, but if I remember correctly he threw together a song that sounded like, at different times, Queen, Elvis and Journey.

That's one talented guy.

They take a well-deserved bow.

They also said they'd be coming back again next year, so if you like what you've heard here, keep an eye out for when they're back in the country.