Jetpacks @ Noise Pop

We Were Promised Jetpacks
SF Noise Pop Festival
Slim’s
San Francisco, CA
February 27, 2010

Turns out we won’t actually be needing those jetpacks after all. I mean, there’s just not much in the way of thrills that can top what this band We Were Promised Jetpacks delivered on Saturday night at Slim’s. Turns out that this band itself actually is a machine from the future, one whose whole purpose evidently is to make your heart pound hard. Hey, don’t take my word for it, just ask these guys:


Based on the album, I had my own idea –call it a hope– of what this band might actually sound & look & feel like live. Because as exciting as the record is, it’s also pretty cleaned-up, yet constantly it hints at edges that are substantially rougher, dirtier, more dangerous.


& damn if that isn’t just what we got at Slim’s on Saturday night! It starts with Michael Palmer’s right hand just pummeling the strings on his black Telecaster fast as faster as fast as that arm can drive it, force feeding his Marshall half stack, feeding back & feeding it some more. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Adam Thompson, we already know that he’s a deep-chest shouter, but holy shit in person the man just roars.


OK, so this music is noisy it’s dense & that’s enough already to make it a beautiful thing. I mean, IMHO. But wait, there’s more! There’s a real brilliance here in the way that Darren Lackie (drums) & Sean Smith (bass) are able to channel all the noise, efficiently & precisely, into the compact parameters of the songs. There was no real stretching out here. This band gets in, winds it up tight & hard, & then gets the hell back out. There’s no screwing around, they’ve got some shit to do & that’s what they get done. Fantastic.