Wednesday 9/25 at The Jefferson Theater
It’s probably unfair to reduce a band that’s been plugging away in various forms since 2007 to wimpy dance music for disinterested millennials. It’s also likely giving an unfair shake to a reasonably successful group if you suggest that people like it, or tolerate it en masse, because vocalist Josh Hodges and company put out inoffensive music that pushes forward with a mildly danceable rhythm. I also concede that it would be really cynical to say that STRFKR’s upbeat indie pop has only propelled it to the heights because there’s something just catchy enough in its sound that manages to fit the bill for advertisers and music supervisors working in films and TV, as evidenced by placements of the band’s hit “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” and other songs in everything from Target and Juicy Couture ads to Showtime’s “Weeds.”
I would also completely understand if a fan got really bent out of shape in the event they were told that STRFKR is just an unscrupulously watered-down knock-off of Of Montreal, with much less creative exploration or lyrical originality—and minus an over-the-top glamorous live show to distract from STRFKR’s lukewarm offerings. A lover of the band would be justified in blowing a gasket if someone lobbed the idea that its occasional forays into more lo-fi sounding diversions and synthy instrumental passages—as employed on its latest, Parallel Realms—are just pretentious smokescreens of assumed intellectual or philosophical depth.
Yeah, all of the above may be true to some degree, but if the songs appeal to you, why turn your nose up at them. Don’t be so critical. Go to the Jefferson and see if STRFKR is really as well-meaning as it makes itself out to be. Worse case, you dance. Best case, you dance.