Friday, February 17, 2012
Music Live: The Jealous Sound Look Back at The Knitting Factory
Posted by Tobias Carroll on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Shehan’s songwriting is very much in the anguished loud-quiet-loud vein; as one friend of mine has commented, his songs generally fit the same template, but it’s a template he’s very good at. The Jealous Sound’s first EP and album sounded like a continuation of his work in Knapsack: a vocal style that sometimes manifested as a precisely controlled scream, occasionally intimate lyrical details, and relentlessly catchy melodies. (It’s a style not far removed from where the Wrens ended up with 2003’s The Meadowlands, in many ways.) After a long absence, the band just released a new album, A Gentle Reminder, from which much of the night’s set was drawn.
One exception was “Hope for Us,” the quietly optimistic opener of 2003’s Kill Them With Kindness, which made an early-show appearance to considerable applause. The newer songs were, not surprisingly, in a similar vein to the group’s earlier work — the presence of a few more vocal harmonies being the main stylistic shift. The earlier days of the band’s discography reappeared at the end of the set, with the steadily burning “Anxious Arms” closing things out, and a solo Shehan performance of “Turning Around” serving as the night’s encore.
It didn’t hurt the night’s positive mood that Shehan’s stage banter was pitched somewhere between enthusiastic and self-deprecating. “Did everyone here have a good Valentine’s Day?” he asked mid-set. Following the crowd’s response, he reacted with, “No? What the fuck!” And shortly thereafter, he introduced one number as “a sad bastard song.” And while The Jealous Sound’s set didn’t reinvent rock music, it did provide a fine primer into why heartbreakingly sad songs can still leave an audience feeling pretty good.
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