Concert Review: Junior Boys and Max Tundra at the Record Bar

REVIEW AND PHOTOS BY LAUREN LOYA

Labelmates Junior Boys and Max Tundra don’t look like guys who inspire kinetic sensuality, but that’s what they got when they set up shop at the Record Bar Friday night.

The jam-packed crowd bopped first to Tundra’s bright, erratic sounds — warm, melodic rays of sunshine one second, cheerful electronic noise the next. Tundra bounced like a spastic chimp from the mic to a variety of music equipment. The results were refreshingly different but not always easy to dance to. Still, the audience clearly approved of his smooth vocals and impressive range.

Mentioning that every musician has a song he wishes he’d written, he belted out a few lines from Vanessa Carlton’s “1,000 Miles” near the end of his act. Almost half the set contained songs from his latest album, Parallax Error Beheads You (which came out in October 2008 and was six years in the making), and a smattering of goodies from earlier albums, appropriately finishing with “So Long Farewell,” from The Sound of Music.

Just when congestion seemed at its maximum, more people shuffled in for the main event: synth-pop delight Junior Boys.