Broods with Jarryd James at The Metro

Thanks to 101WKQX, I found myself heading to The Metro on a Monday night to see Broods with Jarryd James. I had seen Broods this past June as part of a ten band set at PIQNIQ, a 101WKQX event. At the time, Broods second album, Conscious (see review here), was still a week from being released. Based on the singles Free and Heartlines, I bought the album and had considered buying tickets to this next show. I was waiting until after work to purchase the tickets and 101WKQX called just after lunch. A pleasant turn of events.

Jarryd James

Genre: Alternative Pop R&B

Stage Presence: A little awkward

As a listener, I enjoy Broods for more of their upbeat songs, but appreciate the vocals and rhythm that go with some of their slower pieces. Jarryd James falls right into that second group and provided easy listening to open the event. The vocals are very strong with a very mellow energy to the overall feel. I ended up picking up a copy of his Album "High" in order to give things more than just a once over. The biggest struggle I had was the stage presence. After I was able to get over the Obama shroud around the keyboardist's stand, I noticed that Jarryd James posture seemed very contained. He seemed a little uncomfortable in front of the crowd. Holding tight to his microphone most of the time, I would've liked to see a little bit more movement or energy with the performance. Because the vocals and backings were definitely there.

A nice pickup in the middle of the set was a a song, 1000x, that featured Georgia from Broods. This brought the audience in a little more and even though Jarryd James still seemed reserved, he did seem to be more comfortable on stage when partnered with the headliner. Honest opinion, there are two things separating Broods and Jarryd James from opener and headliner: Energy and Confidence. If Jarryd James can find that comfort on stage and add a few numbers with some energy, there's no reason fans that love Broods shouldn't jump right on to that bandwagon.

BROODS

Genre: Electronic / Indie / Pop

Stage Presence: Are you sure it's a Monday night?

One of the benefits of seeing Broods as a headliner was getting to hear more of their catalog. When I saw them last, they were only able to play six songs. Admittedly, that meant you got a set of their higher energy songs, but it almost meant you didn't get to experience the full ability Broods has. This time around, the set included seventeen songs with a three song encore (set list reference). This meant a full Broods performance which included 3 phases.

The first phase feature Georgia in a dark jumpsuit singing six songs that had good flow and energy but tended to be what I would consider darker numbers. But, if you notice the shot above, Between the lighting and Georgia's performance, this opened things very well. It got the audience listening and engaged without having to kick the energy super high and cede to bring things back down which can often drain an audience mid set. One of the songs to note during this section was Freak of Nature. On the album,this song features Tove Lo who did not make an appearance at the show. This isn't surprising, but it's always interesting to me how an artist will handle a song featuring another artist. In the case of Jarryd James, Broods was here to perform so they did the number together. In this case, I would venture to say they knew Georgia had the vocal strength to carry to song without Tove Lo and that's the option they took. And it worked out well.

Instead, we got a brief respite that turned into an acoustic set.  This was an unexpected change of pace as most of Broods features heavy but well balanced electronic effects. The best part of this is that it gave a chance to really hear and focus on the vocal abilities. It may only have been a two song acoustic break, but it was a very well planed an executed decision. Short enough to let the audience appreciate every bit of it but long enough that it didn't feel forced in any way.

Following the acoustic set, things picked up a bit and transitions from dark to light both from lighting and Georgia's outfit. Bonus points to another artist that finds a way to get an outfit change in during the middle of a set. It adds to the performance and gives the image that an artist feels different energy for different parts of their performance. The audience can definitely key into this. With that said, the audience bought into this transition and the energy in the venue reflected what Broods put out. With songs like Recovery, Heartlines, We Had Everything, and Full Blown Love, Georgia utilized the entire stage, moving back forth to get the entire audience feeling the energy for the back half of the performance. For the record, Heartlines is just as catch live and it was exciting to have it towards the middle of the set. A set up for other songs people will definitely recognize coming up. Closing out the set prior to the encore was of course Free which was as strong as could people. The attitude and strength behind the vocals and lyrics crossed with that driving beat make it easy to feel the vibe of the performance.

For an encore, the audience was treated to three songs: Four Walls, Bridges, and Couldn't Believe. Bridges is the most well known song off their debut album "Evergreen" and I appreciate that they chose to make it part of the encore, allowing the main performance to focus on the new album (although, with a seventeen song set, you're getting a lot of both albums). And closing everything out was Couldn't Believe. I was getting anxious to hear this song and was excited to have it be the last song. It's light and has probably the highest energy off of Conscious. Being tired at the end of a Monday night show after a day of work, this brought me back to life before the drive home.

But, we can't go home without first making a stop at the merch stand. Already having a shirt and signed album, this stop was for the previously mention Jarryd James CD and to see what other odds and ends were there. A variety of T-shirts, bags, and even some autographed items were available for purchase. A great selection of items available to show your love for the New Zealand brother-sister duo, Broods.