WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS with THE COAST at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West), Saturday (July 3), 10 pm. $13.50 advance. rotate.com.
The band name We Were Promised Jetpacks reveals little about what to expect in terms of sound. In fact, for a time I thought the up-and-coming Scottish quartet was an over-produced pop rock band. Wrong.
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Jetpacks’ rough-and-tumble melodic indie rock is sweeping and catchy like fellow countrymen Idlewild’s, but also packs a mean punk-edged punch like the sadly defunct Welsh brawl-baiters Mclusky.
The band members are a bunch of affable youngsters, the nerdy rock-inclined kids you remember from high school scribbling Radiohead lyrics inside their math textbooks. And they’re still unsure of what to make of their high school garage band’s ascending success.
“We were touring in England for six weeks in the fall with Frightened Rabbit and the Twilight Sad, and it went a lot better than anyone expected,” says guitarist Michael Palmer over the line.
Palmer’s riding in a bus from their hometown of Edinburgh to Glasgow, a trip that recalls the band’s mid-decade rise from playing cafeteria talent shows in the former to sold-out club gigs in the latter.
As the opening act on the Frightened Rabbit tour, WWPJ played impressive sets to big crowds at every stop, which led to a headlining tour in the spring and a hastily recorded, recently released EP, The Last Place You’ll Look (Fat Cat), to extend the life of their 2009 full-length debut, These Four Walls.
“The EP was basically a fun experiment, which is what I think EPs are for,” says Palmer.
“[With the next album] I’m really looking forward to having big, drawn-out arguments about some random guitar part in the background.”
So are creative clashes and infighting in the band’s future?
“We’d be four equally good friends even if we weren’t in a band together. Making music is just so much fun.
“We spend our days watching the World Cup and writing songs.”
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