Post Modern Jukebox brings vintage sounds, style and swing to The Egyptian Room at Old National Center

Post Modern Jukebox brings vintage sounds, style and swing to The Egyptian Room at Old National Center

By: Kevin Vickery 

On March 7th, Scott Bradlee’s Post Modern Jukebox performed a two hour, high energy set of revamped rock and pop hits to a sold out crowd in downtown Indianapolis as part of their 10th Anniversary Tour.

Post Modern Jukebox (or PMJ) started in 2011 as the brain child of New York based pianist, Scott Bradlee. He and some of his other musician friends would gather in his basement to rework popular modern music into vintage genres, particularly early 20th century forms such as jazz and swing. They began filming these weekly performances and releasing the videos on YouTube. 

Their earliest recordings of these old fashioned style remakes of songs like Macklemore’s, “Thrift Shop”, Miley Cyrus’, “We Can’t Stop” and Meghan Trainor’s, “All About That Bass” went viral and the rest is history. This unique way of blending new songs with old style has been so successful for PMJ that they’ve become a global touring act amassing 5.8 million YouTube subscribers with over 1.9 billion views. The band features a rotating line up of over 70 musicians and  has performed on six continents.

I’ve always enjoyed when a cover song is reinvented in a new way rather than just duplicated as the original. I believe that allows the artist to give the song new life by expressing their own creativity and style through their interpretation and not simply copying someone else’s work.

That is exactly what Scott Bradley and PMJ have done. Search YouTube and you will find their song titles to be things like, “Timber – Vintage 1950s Doo Wop Pitbull/Ke$ha Cover”, “Blurred Lines – Vintage Bluegrass Barn Dance Robin Thicke Cover”, and “Gangsta’s Paradise – Vintage 1920’s Al Capone Style Coolio Cover”.  Not only does Bradlee and PMJ perfectly execute the sound of these various time periods and genres, they also replicate the look through their clothing and costumes.

This unique blend of, style, sound, and musicianship is what PMJ brought to The Egyptian Room. While Bradlee himself was not part of the touring production, he leaves the troop in the capable hand of music director and bassist Adam Kubota who’s been with PMJ since the beginning. The show which gives the feeling of of a cross between a Las Vegas show and a Broadway performance featured a 12 piece group of musicians that included a multi-instrumental horn section, piano, drums, guitar, bass, at least 5 vocalists, and tap dancer Jabu Grabeal, who tapped with such rhythm complimenting precision that he should probably be considered as much of a percussionist as he is a dancer. 

The enthusiastic crowd danced, clapped and sang along as PMJ barreled through their old school jazz versions of songs by; Lady Gaga, Guns N Roses, The Spice Girls, The Cure, Image Dragons, U2 and many more.  Grabeal even lead the band as they followed him tapping his way through the PMJ versions of the theme song to TV show “The Office” and the music from video game, “Super Mario Bros”.

My personal favorite performances of the night were when vocalist Tia Simone belted out a 1960’s soul version of Metallica’s, “Nothing Else Matters” and when drummer, Willy Ray Moore Jr. sang a soulful jazz ballad version of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”.

I spoke with concert goer, Leigh Query of Plainfield, IN who was seeing PMJ for the first time despite being a huge fan since the group’s beginning. She added that, “The show was mind blowing and absolutely phenomenal! My favorite songs were ‘Bad Romance’, ‘Radioactive’ and I’m a sucker for anything with tap dancing!”

The Egyptian room itself has a cool vibe and its capacity of around 2,000 makes it a great room to experience an intimate performance. The architecture and decor of the ballroom are inspired by Ancient Egypt and King Tut’s tomb so it features many hand carved murals, ornate chandeliers, and some cabaret style seating areas. If you’ve never been to a show there, it’s definitely worth making a trip to downtown Indy to check it out.

For more information about Scott Bradlee’s Post Modern Jukebox, you can find them on YouTube, all social media outlets, using the hashtag #pmjtour or on their official website at postmodernjukebox.com

To find out about future events coming to The Egyptian Room at Old National Center, visit their website at murategyptianroom.com or livenation.com