by Ben Bonadies
What is power pop? Like United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said,”I know it when I see it,” leaving ample room for interpretation and debate in online forums. Two members of a prominent power pop group chat, Mo Troper and Peter Gill, took the stage Tuesday night to kick off their joint tour of the northeast. Troper and Gill are known for songs that come in short, hooky bursts with a mix of reverence and ironic detachment toward classic rock staples. Their union at the Rockwell, courtesy of Get To The Gig, was a meeting of the minds for two of this decade’s power pop auteurs.
Gill, whose group 2nd Grade kicked off the night after a warmup set from local faves Really Great, was energetic on mic and bass. The singer/songwriter delivered high kicks and posed with fist raised triumphantly above his head after ripping through opener “W-2.” His lean three-piece band delivered garage-rock muscle on “Work ‘Til I Die” and “Controlled Burn,” though the delicate riffage on songs like “Strung Out On You” was missed. This was the Philly band’s first ever show in Boston, an occasion marked with the performance of new song “Guess and Check Girls” that Gill calls his most Beatles-y (tied with every other song in the 2nd Grade oeuvre.)
Mo Troper and the Mo Troper band closed with the longest set of the night. Troper is a prolific songwriter and ceded the most chaotic moment on his latest album MTV to the power pop group chat from whence he and Gill came. On stage (Troper was actually standing in front of the stage to make room for the four members of his band) Troper referred to it as a “terrible thing” that has led him to seek medical help. Troper seems to have has an askance relationship with the genre (the MoTro website lists “Power Pop Is Camp” t-shirts for sale) that is as hard to pin down as his songs which are coated with tape hiss and guitar screeching to mask his heart-on-sleeve lyricism (“I Fall Into Her Arms”) and penchant for beautiful melodies (“Waste Away”). Still, a certain powerful poppiness pervades. Welcome to power pop summer.
Catch Mo Troper & 2nd Grade on tour, and find their music on Bandcamp.
May 17 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Sultan
May 18 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Bond Street Bar
May 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
May 20 – Washington D.C. @ Comet Ping Pong