Concert attendees often walk into a show with an idea of what they want to hear, whether that’s a one-album band’s biggest hit or the song that they and their partner fell in love to from a group that has performed and recorded popular material over several decades. Many want to sing along; others want to be able to dance.
The performers of Postmodern Jukebox, however, want the audience to think differently about popular music. The group started in 2014 when when creator Scott Bradlee posted retro renditions of popular music on YouTube that went viral.
Ten years later, they are still going strong, and their “10” tour has been performing in mid-size venues throughout the nation. In La Vista’s Astro, they started out their Aug. 26 concert by flipping the hit “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by metal band Def Leopard into a song in the style of early 1960s soul.
The elegant music continued through the night at the Astro, where a few hundred people came out to hear popular songs twisted into classic styles. It had been a while since I’d heard White Stripes “Seven Nation Army,” and hearing it done in the rendition of 1920s jazz made me pause.
The crowd this evening played the part. Early in the show, emcee Rogelio Douglas Jr. asked who had gotten dressed up for this evening. About 20% of the audience stood—wearing outfits ranging from sequined reproductions of flapper dresses and headbands to 1950s full-skirted dresses and more. The performers, however, were attired more elegantly. Each number came with a costume change from 1960s sheaths to 1940s velvet evening dresses and more. In fact, the show at points seemed more about fashion than songs.
It wasn’t only the songs and the costumes—this performance is an all-out variety show from the days before everyone in the family had a separate device and members had either to watch what was one one of three channels or nothing at all. The show included a tap performance to jazz standards such as “In the Mood,” which then morphed into Stevie Wonder’s “The Duke” and continued into “Uptown Funk.”
Instrumentals such as clarinet and saxophone solos and the guitarist playing surfer rock added to the vintage, jazz-concert vibes of the night, the highlight of which was the band’s popular rendition of “All About that Bass,” originally a pop song by Meghan Trainor done in the style of 1920s jazz. They closed out with encores of U2s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” performed as gospel music and a smooth jazz rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep.”
Overall, it was a night of old-fashioned entertainment with modern music—and it worked.