Jordana & TV Girl Concert Review
Photo Credit: Tessa Byrns
At the Gothic Theatre on December 2nd , TV Girl’s rescheduled show marking the six and a half year anniversary of their 2014 debut album, ‘French Exit,’ was overrun by the TikTok crowd thanks to the boost their music has received from the social media platform.
Jordana, who is also the bassist for TV Girl, opened the show with an acoustic set of her solo melancholy songs.
Playing ‘Fuck You’, ‘Reason’ and an unreleased track called, ‘Come Closer’, the crowd was apt to her intentional and heartfelt lyrics and conversation between songs.
The acoustic version of ‘Fuck You’ gives the lyrics more agency opposed to the bouncier version that enlists the help of a drum beat.
“Got quite a knack for fiction, don’t you? Think about the things you can and can’t do, do you think you’ve got the chance to start anew? You haven’t got a clue, Fuck you, fuck your shitty tattoos, fuck you, fuck the way that you move, fuck you, I bet you think you’re so smooth.”
TV Girl, made up of bassist Jordana, lead singer and guitarist Brad Petering, keyboardist Wyatt Harmon, and drummer Jason Wyman gave a fun, jovial, if not sarcastic performance of their entire debut album thanks to Petering’s conversational sardonic wit between songs. The band’s playfulness was also on full display during the upbeat, if not lyrically melancholic, songs.
Photo Credit: Tessa Byrns
TV Girl’s songs describe lost love though they would call it lost lust, with such detail and apathy intermingling that hearing Petering’s descriptions of their music as life saving and world altering, you almost believe him. Though the band is still simmering in the obscure music realm, they should be more popular. The TikTok generation has an ear for virality and thankfully TV Girl has been tapped for a wider audience of ready listeners.
With their fun, bouncy musicality mixed with the heartbreak of reality in songs ‘Birds Don’t Sing’, ‘Louise’, ‘The Getaway’ and ‘Hate Yourself’ it’s no question why this new generation has taken to this underground indie pop band.
‘Louise’ is a prime example of what makes TV Girl a bittersweet musical experience.
“Louise, she just wasn’t thinking when she climbed into his bed, she only wanted to lie beside him, to hell with his best friend, she woke and she whispered but the answer wasn’t good, whatever made you think I would ever love you? Even if I could.”
‘The Getaway’ is also a bouncy, seemingly lighthearted song with the implementation of a groovy beat and fun but passive poetic lyrics.
“But that’s the way it always starts, feel like Lily and the Jack of Hearts, always making out like bandits, til you getaway and it falls apart, it falls apart.”
The last song of the regular set, ‘Anjela’ was playful as ever. Jordana, Petering and Harmon all ended up on the stage floor. Beginning with Jordana and Petering dancing with their guitars toward each other and then performing a very well choreographed dance routine ending with them making a heart with each other’s arms uplifted, that Petering told the audience was completely spur of the moment.
TV Girl finally gifted the TikTok crowd what they wanted from the beginning of the show, an encore performance of their viral sensation, ‘Not Allowed’ from the next album in their discography, ‘Who Really Cares.’
“You don’t know how long I could stare into your picture and wish that it was me.”
The crowd scream singing the last line of the song, “All by himself, sittin alone, I hope we’re still friends, yeah, I hope you don’t mind.”
TV Girl will finish up their US tour this month and then head over to Europe mid next year.
by Tessa Byrns (Staff Music Writer)
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