We Were Promised Jetpacks at Varsity, Minneapolis (12 Nov 2015)

Setlist

When I Know Ships With Holes Will Sink A Part of It Moving Clocks Run Slow Safety In Numbers Peaks and Troughs Keeping Warm Repeating Pats Roll Up Your Sleeves Silver Lining Sore Thumb Quiet Little Voices Boy in the Backseat Pear Tree — Encore — It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning

 

Scotland’s We Were Promised Jetpacks just recently stopped by the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on Thursday night, in support of their latest Unravelling (Fat Cat Records).

 

The four piece indie rock band (singer/guitarist Adam Thompson, guitarist Michael Palmer, bassist Sean Smith, and drummer Darren Lackie) has a following of diehard fans. The crowd that gathered around me was singing to every single word, knowing every phrase.

We Were Promised Jetpacks have been around since 2003 but didn’t release their debut album until 2009. Since then, they have released three albums with Unravelling being the most recent (released October 6th of last year)… but only three songs from the new album was played (“A Part of It”, “Safety in Numbers”, and “Peaks and Troughs”, with the rest of the set making up from their other two albums.
Even with three albums and international success, these guys have stayed true to the music and proved that last week.

There were no flashy outfits, no spectacular light show, there was nothing to distract you from the talent of the band and honestly, that was more than enough to keep your mind occupied.

The Scottish band made the music look effortless as they seamlessly switched from song to song. Unless you were really paying attention, it was hard to notice the actually complexity of the arrangement. There was a lot of back and forth between bass and guitar embellishments that, again, if you weren’t watching, you would have missed.

 

The crowd was silent as We Were Promised Jet Packs plugged through their set. All eyes were on the band and, other than a few outliers who were bouncing up and down, people just enjoyed the music coming off of the stage.

The sole encore song (not written on their setlist) was an old and classic WWPJ song, “It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning”, taken from their debut These Four Walls (Fat Cat Records).

 

Opening the night was Seoul, a band from Montreal, Canada. This trio just recently released their debut album I Become A Shade back in June of this year and played many selections off of it. Their sound was much more dream pop than the driving rock sound of WWPJ but the bands worked really well together. The Varsity Theater show was Seoul’s sixth night on tour with WWPJ and will be joining them for the rest of the North American tour.

Although the music of the night was calm and soothing, there was still more than enough energy radiating from the stage. Between both Seoul, the opener, and WWPJ, the crowd was more than happy to spend the chilly Thursday night in Dinky Town.

Remaining tour dates:

11.16 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge 11.17 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s 11.19 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American 11.20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom 11.21 – San Diego, CA @ Irenic 11.22 – Tucson, AZ @ Flycatcher 11.24 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger 11.25 – Austin, TX @ The Parish

11.27 – Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall 11.28 – Orlando, FL @ The Social 11.29 – Jacksonville, FL @ Underbelly 12.01 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade 12.02 – Nashville, TN @ Exit / In 12.04 – Charlottesville, VA @ Southern 12.05 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw 12.06 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts 12.07 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair