Rocking Horse Rodeo

[Rocking Horse Rodeo]
First of all, the band’s numerous members allow for plenty of ear candy with drums, bass, acoustic guitar, a mandolin, a banjo, and two or more people singing at once. During the opening song, “You’re the Man Who Broke My Heart,” we get a little bit of everything from the night: The band is large, the songs contain beautiful rises and falls, the vocalists maintain consistent harmonies, the more acoustic feel offers sincerity and comfort, the set flows very well, and they’re all dressed for success. I particularly enjoyed the rotating instrumentation, not only with members moving on and off of the stage, but with several members switching off each others’ instruments. It’s easy to see there’s a lot of talent up there.

Other highlights of the night include some very tasteful drum part change-ups in “Lucifer,” and a very quiet section in “Cruel Things” that really let the superb vocal quality come through. The background vocals were always at a great performance volume to compliment the lead vocals, and the texture of the lead vocals really revealed the kind of great voice that you just have to be born with. Having such a warm stage presence and accessibility in all of their songs, Jesus & the Argonauts had, to me, the most personality out of all of the bands this evening.
Jesus & the Argonauts - First of all, the band’s numerous members allow for plenty of ear candy with drums, bass, acoustic guitar, a mandolin, a banjo, and two or more people singing at once. During the opening song, “You’re the Man Who Broke My Heart,” we get a little bit of everything from the night: The band is large, the songs contain beautiful rises and falls, the vocalists maintain consistent harmonies, the more acoustic feel offers sincerity and comfort, the set flows very well, and they’re all dressed for success. I particularly enjoyed the rotating instrumentation, not only with members moving on and off of the stage, but with several members switching off each others’ instruments. It’s easy to see there’s a lot of talent up there.

benkalimidwayOther highlights of the night include some very tasteful drum part change-ups in “Lucifer,” and a very quiet section in “Cruel Things” that really let the superb vocal quality come through. The background vocals were always at a great performance volume to compliment the lead vocals, and the texture of the lead vocals really revealed the kind of great voice that you just have to be born with. Having such a warm stage presence and accessibility in all of their songs, Jesus & the Argonauts had, to me, the most personality out of all of the bands this evening.

But that is not to say that tonight’s bill was not very well put together. Quite the contrary. I was a bit concerned with the bands being adequately placed in their appropriate time slot, but the intensity of everyone’s set was well matched and well framed. I was brought in smiling, shaken to dance, and gently set down for my ride home feeling good.

http://playgroundboston.com/2009/07/21/show-review-kingsley-flood-st-helena-the-motion-sick-muy-cansado-and-jesus-the-argonauts-church-710/ - Playground Boston

http://www.bostonbandcrush.com/2009/04/mythological-and-spiritual-crush-jesus.html

Mythological and Spiritual Crush: [Rocking Horse Rodeo]

I got a chance to catch the awesome, rag-tag alt-country tunes of Jesus & the Argonauts Tuesday night at Sally O'Brien's in Somerville. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the venue, Sally's is a small, but great little room in Union Square that often has free, alt-country leaning shows. It's a fun place to take a seat and check out some local downtempo twang. So, back to Jesus. It was my first time seeing the band in its full form, so I was excited to check them out after hearing good things about them for a while. I probably can't sum it up any better than their bio does:

These folks have a real nice range of lush instrumentation and arrangement with lots of traded male-female vocals and group backing. In particular, check out "You're the Man Who Broke My Heart" on their MP3 page...and while you're there, you may as well give all of the songs a good listen. It's absolutely worth your bits.
We here at Boston Band Crush also managed to get a couple of videos from the show for you.

First, their awesome rendition of The Magnetic Fields' "Grand Canyon," featuring a great use of the trombone to replace the melodic line in the song. Second, in my tireless effort to become Boston's finest gonzo music blogger, I found my way up on stage with the band and a gaggle of audience members and friends to sing "Love Conquers All" - Boston Band Crush