Jehovah's Witness...

continued

No one goes anywhere, and the next song is the musical highlight of the set. It's slower and has more intricate guitar parts, along with bursts of frenzied playing. Again, Anthony loses the guitar partway through, and the music is sustained by his recorded loop and Jehan's smashing beats. After the song ends, Anthony looks spent, but asks, "Hey, have we done 'Well Song' yet?" Apparently none of the prior three was "Well Song," so that's the next selection.

While Anthony does everything in his power to downplay the band's ability, the audience clearly has a great time. One guy with dreadlocks stands out, as he's spent the band's first three songs feverishly dancing with a large mascot-style rabbit head over his own. I can only imagine that it must be hot inside with all that hair and minimal ventilation. He suddenly loses the rabbit head, however, and moments later he's sitting up on stage on Anthony's amplifier, thrashing his dreads and kicking his feet. This seems to amp up the crazy level. He eventually leaves his perch, and, doing a dance that vaguely resembles a man drowning, he ambles across the stage and joins Anthony in the chorus: "What you gonna do when the well runs dry ..." This incites a stage invasion, and the song ends with a dozen extra people on stage singing along.

And that's JWPP in a snap; not necessarily groundbreaking, but gritty, fun, and a damn entertaining bar band. JWPP is back at Woodruff's on Friday, July 22.   

[Originally published in July, 2011.]