Los Angeles – With a powerful performance before a packed house in West Hollywood’s famed venue The Troubadour, this show felt a lot like a homecoming for Los Angeles-based Mr. Little Jeans. The synth-pop band effortlessly flowed through their headlining set, punctuated by a strong vocal performance from bandleader Monica Birkenes. The crowd quickly filled the compact standing-room footprint in front of the stage, with kids hanging from the venue’s balconies and filling up the stairways trying to get a good view of the performance.
While Birkenes hails from Norway, she has adopted Los Angeles as her new hometown and base for her Mr. Little Jeans project. With what seemed to be an entire legion of friends and family in the crowd, Birkenes could be seen high-fiving and waving to audience members throughout her set. The singer appeared to be very at-home here in Southern California, and she even utilized the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music Youth Choir to provide backing vocals on “Oh Sailor,” a cut from her debut album, Pocketknife, which was released earlier this year. While the youth choir was not present to perform it live, the song was among the best received of the night, and the second the adorable xylophone intro kicked in the crowd went bonkers.
To simply call Birkenes the “bandleader” of Mr. Little Jeans is selling her role short. She essentially is Mr. Little Jeans, composing the songs and providing the lead vocals. She was joined on stage by two band members who held down the rhythm and atmosphere with their drums, guitar and keyboards. This freed up Birkenes, allowing her to dance and sing all over the stage without the interference of an instrument.
With her between-song banter, Birkenes could not have been more charming. While some of the tracks in Mr. Little Jeans’ repertoire offer dreamy and disconnected vocal performances, after each song concluded Birkenes shed that detached persona. She energetically conversed with the audience, discussing topics that ranged from working with the aforementioned Silver Lake youth choir to her first tattoo, which she eagerly showed to the crowd – don’t get too excited, it was on her wrist. Birkenes was obviously amped up to be playing in front of a sold-out venue, and perhaps even a bit flattered by her success. Anyone who was not already a fan of the band’s music could not help but succumb to her infectious enthusiasm.
Thankfully, Mr. Little Jeans saved their most well known track for the end of their set. While by no means a bad song, the band’s cover of Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” does not mesh well with the rest of the songs off Pocketknife. Instead of shoving it in the middle of their set and killing the momentum that was building with each song, they stuck it at the end. While “The Suburbs” might have been what gained Mr. Little Jeans many of its initial fans, it is clearly the synth-pop gems that will keep them sticking around.
But before the band played “The Suburbs,” Birkenes treated the crowd to her newest track, a Christmas-themed song. Replete with jingle bells and a holiday melody, the song really got the crowd into the holiday spirit.
Mr. Little Jeans’ performance showed they have the pop chops and the passion for performance to hit the big time. If there were any justice in the world, bands with the creativity and catchiness of Mr. Little Jeans would be the ones performing in front of sold-out arenas and being played incessantly on Top 40 radio. But until then, one of the best groups the pop world has to offer will be playing show after show in intimate clubs and getting all of their radio play on indie stations like KCRW-FM.
Mr. Little Jeans’ show at The Troubadour marked the final stop on the group’s 2014 tour.
Matt Matasci
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