Concerts of the week

On Tuesday, I caught Flickerstick at the Bowery Ballroom. Thursday was Jump, Little Children at Village Underground. (Both are among my favorite venues in the city.)
Flickerstick was decent, if unimpressive. I’ve seen them a couple of times in the last year, since first hearing about them on Bands on the Run. At the Wetlands, they were great. Unfortunately, they haven’t progessed much since then, playing pretty much the same set. They are limited by their lack of material and diversity in sound. Better bands tend to have a distinctive sound, but with different styles. Flickerstick has yet to branch out beyond their core sound (ala Beautiful, Smile and Got a Feeling, all of which are quality tunes.)
In contrast, Jump, Little Children (yes, the comma is part of the name) is a much more developed group. They have a wide range of material to draw from. More importantly, however, they have a number of different sounds to draw on, ranging from full-on rock to stringy ballads to funky beat poetry. They have some excellent songs, exude energy and have fun on stage– such as playing cellphone ring tones into songs to playing completely unplugged (no mics, no amps, no PA– it’s nice to hear truly live music.) J,LC is a quirky group that deserves recognition. Magazine and Vertigo are both representative discs.