Jenny & Johnny at Bush Hall

Jenny & Johnny
La Sera

Bush Hall, 8 December 2010

I'm not going to lie to you, my main reason for going to this show was Jenny rather than Johnny. Jenny being Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley fame, who between playing witty, infectious pop with her old band also released two country rock-influenced solo albums and stole my heart along the way. I'm probably too old to adore her the way girls in their teens do, since I'm around the same age as Ms Lewis, but I do admit feeling a little awed when she walks on stage in a wow-inducing tight white polka dot dress, looking every inch the glamorous, sexy pop star (albeit it in the alternative world).
Despite having seen her many times, twice solo and twice with Rilo Kiley, this was the smallest venue I've ever seen her in and the closest I've ever been to her, so it was startling to see how tiny and cute she really is close up. In contrast, Scottish singer Johnathan Rice, the Johnny in the equation and Jenny's boyfriend, looks sweetly dishevelled, like he just woke up, in a crumpled shirt and 80s-style jeans and white sneakers. In fact, they almost looked straight out of an 80s romance, with Johnathan in his stonewashed jeans and Jenny in her short dress, exchanging cute, bashful glances at each other throughout the show.

Starting with the power pop blast of Committed, it was much more energetic than I expected and they bounced their way through the song, Jenny and Johnny sharing a mic at one point, leaning in close to each other as they harmonised on the punky rush of the song. Moving quickly into each song, the tunes whizzed happily by, with the band looking like they were having too much fun to stop and talk to the crowd or take a breath between songs, and the good feeling was undeniably contagious. It reminded me of the way The Lemonheads used to joyfully and breathlessly speed through their setlist, each track like a great little sugar rush.

All the way through Jenny and Johnathan kept smiling at each other, occasionally whispering in the other's ear, like they were playing together for the first time. "You should hear what she just said to me," Rice joked. They also helped keep each song fresh and difference by constantly swapping instruments throughout, with Jenny starting out on bass (she looks particularly cool as bassist), then switching to guitar, adding keyboards on one song and even providing an additional marching drumbeat on a couple.

The show was essentially the new album, I'm Having Fun Now, played live, which was fine with me because it's one of the year's best pop albums, but there were a few nice surprises, one being a new song called Just One Of The Guys, were Jenny about the trials of being a girl trying to fit in with the boys on the road. Sassy and full of attitude, it was like a classic Rilo Kiley track.

But the best moment for me was the most stripped down, when just Jenny and Johnny returned for the encore to play the title track of Jenny's last solo album, Acid Tongue, with the equally read-headed support act La Sera coming up to sing enjoyably impromptu backing vocals. "I only travel with redheads," Jenny joked, when Johnny looked the odd man out in the sea of gorgeous redhair.

Ending the show with a rollicking Carpetbaggers, another solo Jenny tune but one half sung by Johnathan, it was a short and sweet, high-spirited treat indeed. While I, like many there, had come for Jenny, Rice was surprisingly great and more than held his own with his more high profile girlfriend, and the chemistry between them exuded from the stage. Their debut album together, I'm Having Fun Now, couldn't be more aptly named.

As for the aforementioned support act La Sera, well they made me feel like I had stepped back to the mid 90s girl band scene. Everything from the way they were dressed (very grunge era, flowerly skirts, leggings and boots, and check shirts and jeans) to the girly vocals over the jangly distorted guitar, sent me back to the days of Belly, Madder Rose and Juliana Hatfield. Best bit for me was a punky cover of Dedicated To The One I Love which showed off singer Katy Woodman's vocals which had otherwise been lost a little in the mix. Both the girls looked like sisters with their striking red hair but I later learned they aren't and Goodman is actually the bassist in the lo-fi band Vivian Girls and La Sera is one of her side-projects. I was never a big fan of Vivian Girls homage to The Shruggs so to my humble ears, the 60s girl pop meets 90s grunge of La Sera was a definite improvement.