Generationals and Springtime Carnivore hosted a Royals victory dance party last night at RecordBar

Generationals, with Springtime Carnivore
RecordBar, Kansas City
Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Someone surely is measuring the economic impact of this Royals postseason on area bars and liquor stores. Business has probably never been better for most of them (or worse for KC’s rapidly expanding, beer-absorbing waistlines). There may be a few bars suffering – particularly ones with no TVs, or perhaps, in this case, ones with scheduled music acts. This seemed to be the case last night at Record Bar.

By the time the Royals had capped a 10-0 victory and the clocks hit about 10:30 p.m., most Kansas Citians were heading home, and not to cap off the three-and-a-half-hour Tuesday night marathon with some dancing. Yet for those hundred-or-so souls who braved the late, post-game hours, Generationals and Springtime Carnivore were in the mood to celebrate with the crowd.

Perhaps the night’s biggest surprise was Springtime Carnivore, the name under which bandleader Greta Morgan performs. Morgan, who must be some kind of Amy Schumer/Neko Case lovechild (in looks, wit and vocal chops), plays bouncy, hooky pop with bold bass lines. Dressed as Stevie Nicks for Halloween, Morgan punched out a handful of songs while charming the audience, which while on the smaller side, was already eager to dance.

“I see the TV is off,” she noted, after the game had ended. “Does that mean that you won? Yay, you!”  Several members of the crowd responded with one word: “Sports!” 

A little later in her set, she told the crowd that it just didn’t seem like the right night to play slow songs, so she altered her setlist to keep the mood high. Fans of Neko Case and Feist should look her up.

Often intermission times at smaller shows like this can be interminably and inexplicably long, between stage setup and tuning, but not so last night. The show had been moved to a slightly later time because of said sporting event, and RecordBar usually closes hard and quickly just around 12:30 p.m.. Generationals managed to set up all of their equipment, including light bars, a light-up mannequin and stage lights in slightly over 20 minutes. And while the young crowd may have been on the cozy side, but they clearly had shown up for Generationals. Dancing began in earnest with the first note, and kept on for nearly an hour. 

Generationals does not sound like a New Orleans band. There are no horns, and the style is about as far away from blues or jazz as it can get. They make electro-pop, with sharp, often girlish vocals, clinky keyboards and thick, bouncing bass lines. They’d sound more at home around MGMT, Junior Boys or Hot Chip than Wynton Marsalis or Dr. John.

What they do have in common with their fellow New Orleanians is a technical proficiency that makes what they are doing appear to be easy, though it’s not. It’s all in the little details: How hard it is to write the subtle, complex keyboard flourishes in the background from Grant Widmer, how tough to write a bass line that really makes you want to dance and how well Ted Joyner in particular controls his falsetto. Beyond that, it was just fun.

“You guys are in a good mood tonight,” remarked Joyner playfully. “I wonder why.”

Generationals kept the mood high, with music bright and shimmery enough it’s surprising that we’re not already hearing their music in every other tv commercial. Between “sports!” and this show, it was a long night – but really, is there a better way to cap off a victory than with a little dance?

Setlist: Sorry. If you have one, post it below.