Jamboree’s slow, steady path back to the stage

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This article was published 04/05/2022 (1595 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It will be a long-awaited celebration for Jamboree Thursday night when the Winnipeg indie trio finally gets to release its album Life in the Dome to the world in the way they intended: at a concert filled with people losing and finding themselves in the music.

Long-awaited for a few reasons: it’s been about eight months since the band last played a live show; it’s been about 20 months since they’ve played a live show indoors; it’s been nearly two years since many of the now-finished tracks were first recorded as demos.

And, it’s been one month since their planned album release — on April 1 — was postponed by an unsavoury April Fools joke when COVID infections sidelined several members of the opening bands, plus members of the band they brought in as a last-minute replacement.

“That was an unlucky stroke there,” says Alex Braun who plays with Nick Lavich and Sky Parenteau in one of the city’s brightest up-and-coming bands. “It seemed like the gods didn’t want it to happen.”

But Braun, 22, knows there can be virtue in taking things slow, even if not by choice. The band’s latest album is a prime example: some songs were written as early as 2019, and they’d been meaning to record them for a while. “To us, they’re kind of old songs at this point.”

Yet in that extra time, the old songs got tighter, Braun says, and the band figured out ways to make them more cohesive and coherent. “This is the longest we’ve ever taken in making an album,” the drummer says. “And it’s kind of a blessing it took so long.”

The blessing is ours. Because the album release show was delayed, the band’s music has had a month to ingratiate itself to listeners, and it’s fair to say that Life in the Dome sounds timeless. It mixes the jaded and angsty sounds of the slacker rock and grunge apex of the mid-1990s — an era none of the 22-year-old members were alive to experience first-hand — with a coy wit and youthful energy that feels much needed right now. Lavich and Parenteau handle the vocals, and they mumble, talk-sing, and sing with an approachable, easy-to-listen-to and easy-to-sing-with enthusiasm. Recorded and mixed by Lino D’Ottavio and mastered by No Fun Club’s J. Riley Hill, the album has just the right amount of polish: it’s real and it’s honest.

Canadian music publication Exclaim! felt the same way, giving the Jamboree release a high rating and a rave review in March. “Jamboree’s inclination to follow their curiosity helps make Life in the Dome sound uniquely itself,” reviewer Myles Tiessen wrote. More than that, it helps prevent the record from feeling formulaic or easily categorized; there’s a little bit of everything for everybody packed into 10 songs which take 35 minutes to listen through. That is if you can resist listening again as soon as the last track, Stop Moving, finishes.

Lavich says the band is anxious and excited to take those 35 minutes and stretch them out, sprinkling in songs from earlier releases, and sharing the bill at the Good Will Social Club with other local stalwarts Virgo Rising — a Jamboree labelmate at House of Wonders — and Warming, the always dynamic project of local multi-instrumentalist Brady Allard.

So far, Lavich has heard a lot of good feedback from family and friends about the album. “They all seem fond of it, but friends wouldn’t really tell you otherwise,” he says.

He himself is confident in the music, which he and Braun both agree sounds better than anything they’ve ever committed to a digital recording file.

“The reception from everybody seems to be pretty good so far,” Lavich says. “But I think we’ll have a better idea of what people think after Thursday.”

Jamboree, with Virgo Rising and Warming, take the stage at the Good Will Social Club tonight, Thursday, May 5, at 8 p.m. Their album is available on cassette at shophouseofwonders.com, and to stream on various platforms.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com