A sold-out crowd settled down in the plush seats of the Somerville Theater Saturday night, popcorn and sodas in hand. But instead of catching a second-run movie, the eclectic crowd, which included everyone from bouncy teenyboppers to the middle-aged, caught spunk-filled performances from folk singer Jess Klein and Boston-based pop-rockers the Push Stars.
Klein commanded the audience's attention with her opening set. Despite her diminutive and impressionably cute appearance, Klein packed a punch with her soaring vocals and captivating narrative style. The audience grooved along with Klein on her more upbeat numbers, bopping in the seats while she bounced about onstage with her enthusiastic band and seemingly oversized guitar.
Klein primed the audience for the Push Stars, who took the stage around 9:30 p.m. to a then-packed and hooting theater. Guitarist and vocalist Chris Trapper made quite an impression in a rhinestone-studded maroon dress shirt and bell-bottomed pants, as did bassist and keyboardist Dan McLoughlin, in an orange, red, brown, and white striped polyester suit fit for a Saturday Night Fever extra, or perhaps a caricature of a sleazy used car dealer. Percussionist Ryan MacMillian took it easy, pimping like a Gap poster boy behind his drum set.
The band opened with a new number, which the audience seemed to enjoy, even though it didn't know the lyrics. Trapper lightened the mood with a short rendition of the chorus from Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle," before launching into "Cash." Crowd fave "Everything Shines," one of the band's only radio semi-hits, featured a guitar solo from an at-first reluctant audience member who turned out to know his stuff.
Drummer MacMillian took the vocals on "Too Much Pride," a number which states that "men are all pigs," showing the band's not-so-characteristically sweet side. Trapper mentioned that since the band is composed of "angels," MacMillian got stuck with the bad rap for this song. A definite shift from Trapper's throaty and soulful voice, MacMillian's lighter, lilting voice gave the song a more fleeting and wistful feel.
With the band's next number, "Drunk Is Better Than Dead," a few audience members rose to their feet to dance along with the funk, though most of the crowd felt comfortable chilling in the seats and singing along. After mostly drawing from its third record, After The Party, the band played three tracks from its just-released album, Opening Time. The new sound was definitely less lighthearted and more aggressive than the band's trademark happier numbers. Instead of "everything shining," the new songs told tales of relationships gone sour and dead end jobs.
The trio returned to selections from its third album after these songs, with its swooning, lounge-influenced "Back To The Party." This number featured an extended break - the "sex part" as Trapper informed the laughing and hollering audience, whom he then accused of being perverts.
Another favorite, "Any Little Town," brought the crowd to its feet with a little nudging from Trapper. After that poppy number, MacMillian left the stage and Trapper and McLoughlin performed a stripped-down version of "Last Night's Dream" to a virtually silent and rapt crowd. Trapper, with a characteristically strained and poignant expression, won the audience over with his "power ballad without the power."
After the heavy-handed song, he once again lightened the mood with a cocky rendition of "Feelings." MacMillian returned in a wife-beater and a Gene Simmons mask. After a flash of white had sailed down from the balcony, the band reveled in receiving its first ever pair of women's undergarments during a show - even though this pair was decidedly grandma in nature, which Trapper admitted was not what he had pictured in his rock-and-roll dreams of yesteryear.
After an extended version of "Minnesota," the band exited the stage despite the demanding crowd, now on its feet for an encore. Trapper came back with Jess Klein to deliver a nostalgia-inflected ballad, "Wild Irish Rose." Trapper once again moved the audience to silence as Klein swayed back and forth at the second mic, also immersed in the power of the song and concentrating intensely with shut eyes and a small smile. The band returned with another sing-along number, "Cadillac," and then wished the audience a good night.
However, the crowd would not let the group leave, and the band strode back to the stage for one last number: "Shy," a throwback from its first album. The dedicated audience knew all the lyrics to what Trapper professed was his "stalking" song. The band sped up the slow number for the crowd, which spilled into the aisles, bumping and grinding.
The Push Stars ended the night in the lobby, signing t-shirts, albums, posters, and the infamous underwear, for adoring girls and some star-struck guys. Relentlessly barraged with kisses, hugs, and handshakes, the Push Stars proved that with a fan base such as theirs, their rock star dreams definitely seemed within reach.
