The new Los Angeles band Bootstraps was headlining the night at the Troubadour, bringing even more young girls front row, who were asking for a selfie with frontman Jordan Beckett while they were wrestling up their gear on stage.
They played a very emotional music, the heart-on-your-sleeve and gut-exploding type, with slow, quiet-as-a-ballad beginnings which were then exploding all over the place. Beckett had actually a smoky-weary falsetto, a sort of David Gray croon, bringing intense emotions in each one of their ascending songs. They played a series of little bombasts, uplifting numbers bringing emotion to the top, with calm episodes followed by tense foot-tapping and anxious drum-driven parts – think early Arcade Fire, as it was very audible during ‘Fortyfive’. A certain plaintive melancholia was floating around their music, especially reinforced by Beckett’s peculiar tone of voice, which could almost have made them pass for a country band at times.
Their folksy-Americana soundscapes sure were pleasing the crowd which had grew larger since the beginning of the night, but I must say that, after a while, their cathartic songs, going from slow-quiet to big guitar-keys splash, sounded a bit similar, repetitive and then quite predictable, but they were surely hitting a deep chord among the crowd, waiting for this deep dramatic blow-up moment every time.
Bootstraps is a very young band with a surprising story, as they only have one album. Portland native Jordan Beckett moved to Los Angeles looking for screenwriting opportunities, but instead composed music for his friend’s movie ‘Take Me Home’, which made won the 2011 Best Music at the Nashville Film Festival. He also got a few songs placements in TV shows, and in particular recorded Whitney Houston’s famous hit ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ for ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. They played the cover to close the show, and it was a very slowed down version, as they had made the song totally theirs, it was hardly recognizable as they gave to the famous dance-pop tune their typical grandeur and drama. Last Thursday, Bootstraps was headlining the Troubadour but they may headline a bigger venue sooner than it takes them to make a second album.
Setlist
Road Noise
Sleeping Giant
Fortyfive
Haywire
Nothing On You Kid
Waiting
Guiltfree
OH CA
I Wanna Dance
A few pictures of the show here
