“The ground below is shaking / It’s a century in the making / Every heartbreak’s just another tale / For telling.” Jukebox the Ghost’s most recent full-length, 2022’s Cheers, opens with an undeniable truth: Sharing your hurt and baring your soul is no longer just the province of the artist. Anyone with an app can replay family strife, job losses, failed relationships and tricky friends as stories to be told and lessons to be learned.
Jukebox the Ghost have a ton of experience as storytellers. Currently supporting pop soulsters Lawrence on the road, the piano-powered trio from Washington, D.C., has endeared itself to fans with whimsical, perceptive tunes since 2006. Ben Thornewill, Tommy Siegel and Jesse Kristin came together in college, and within a few years were performing on Late Show with David Letterman and touring with acts including Jack’s Mannequin, Barenaked Ladies and Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches.
The release of their third album, 2010’s Safe Travels, signaled a more confessional turn of songwriting, with lyrics reflecting personal experiences instead of just fictional narratives. Robust piano chords and soaring vocals from Thornewill, playful guitar from Siegel (who moonlights as cartoonist for The New Yorker) and perfectly rhythmic drum beats from Kristin made their musings on life’s constant challenges all the more relatable and powerful.
Despite this band’s clear talent, the music world didn’t quite know how to classify them. But if we had to pick one reference, it might be Queen. Freddie Mercury was known for his falsetto and Thornewill comes pretty close to hitting those Mercurian highs, especially on albums such as 2018’s Off to the Races — possibly a nod to Queen’s A Day at the Races? Larger-than-life choruses swell like new bohemian rhapsodies on tracks such as that album’s opener, “Jumpstarted.”
Jukebox the Ghost prove that a good band can deliver great songs and stories without being required to “stay in their lane” or fit under one tiny genre umbrella. They can stand out in the deluge of personal online testimonials with their own kind of musical truth-telling.
Jukebox the Ghost opens for Lawrence 7pm Saturday, Sept. 28 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. jukeboxtheghost.com ~ olivia feldman
