It could have easily been just another late-winter Tuesday night—the streets sloshy and cold, viagra ed cars buzzing down Comm Ave. in a hive-like drone—but within the walls of Great Scott, sickness a dreamy dance party was brewing. Javelin, medicine a rainbow-colored electronic duo based in Brooklyn with roots in Providence, Rhode Island, threw a bona fide dance party…wintery mix be darned.
Allston’s own Emily Reo, graciously filling in for Birthdays, opened the evening with a heavenly set that felt like falling into a beautiful dream, with rippling vocals, hypnotic beats, and watercolor melodies. Reo, small in stature, big-haired, sweet voiced and delicate, played her instruments with quiet confidence and understated groove.
Next on the stage was Raleigh Moncrief, in Boston for the first time—far from his native California. Moncrief mixes the rhythmic controlled chaos of Dan Deacon with high, layered, otherworldly vocals, as if the haunting soundtrack of Twin Peaks were sped up, slowed down, and remixed. Moncrief’s long dark hair fell over an angular, focused face as he spun his ethereal-meets-chaotic tunes. “Lament For Morning,” off his last album “Watered Lawn,” was a standout performance.
Throughout the first two acts, a massive structure loomed over at the back of Great Scott, almost comically out of place: a towering dark sculpture composed entirely of boom boxes. Patrons of the venue took photos on their cell phones and glanced curiously at its hulking mass as they walked by. After Raleigh Moncrief made a graceful exit from the stage, Javelin’s two members, Tom van Buskirk and George Langford, lifted the behemoth onto the stage.
It loomed, imposing its immense physicality with the illumination of multicolored lights from behind. This represented a change in show structure for the band. Boomboxes have always been a part of Javelin shows, but up until their current tour, they were a motley assortment of pastel and rainbow-colored working boomboxes. This resurrection created more of a grand sculpture than a functioning part of the presentation (these boomboxes no longer boom). It was bigger, darker, and meant business.
With Van Buskirk on guitar, vocals, and MPC synthesizer, and Langford on a Drumkat percussion pad, Javelin opened the show with “Lindsay Brohan,” a danceable, sunshine-filled song from 2012’s EP 2. Van Buskirk and Langford rode the high of this opening number with “Light Out,” a hot track off their new album, Hi Beams. The new album is polished, sometimes even anthemic, representing a significant evolution from their previous releases. “Light Out” is a special song, displaying just how excellent a drummer Langford is; he plays with a manic, almost military energy, focused and intense.
Though it’s a very different album than their other releases, Hi Beams still touches on many of the same elements that Javelin fans know and love: on-point samples, infectious beats, and funky vocals often verging into distorted cartoon squeaks. Many of the tracks on Hi Beams are irrefutably made for dancing, full of deep bass and bouncing samples. “Oh, yeah, we also wrote a jock jam on this album, too,” said Van Buskirk wryly into the mic before launching into “Judgement Nite,” a funked up, guitar-heavy, halftime anthem for the psychedelic football game of their dreams. The band also played a number of favorites from their previous albums, including the video-game-esque bumper “Soda Popinski” from EP 1 (for which the crowd went absolutely bananas), the dreamy “Off My Mind,” and the classic “On It On It” from their first full-length album, No Mas, which was released in 2010.
The crowd at Great Scott was enthusiastic, mobile, and grateful, dancing to almost every song and cheering loudly at each break. Openers Emily Reo and Raleigh Moncrief took part in the dancing, blending in with the crowd and making friendly conversation. Likewise, Langford and Buskirk joined the audience with enthusiasm for the first two acts, creating a friendly, uninhibited atmosphere that loosened up the whole show.
After Javelin’s set ended, they quickly and graciously took the stage for an encore, playing “Susie Cues,” one of their most beloved songs, among other favorites. The audience filed out of the Great Scott slowly, chattily, and dewy with perspiration from the dance floor.
What comes next for Javelin is a mystery, but their performance at Great Scott proved that they’ve still got it in spades.
Photo Credit: Christine Varriale