CMJ Sub Pop / Hardly Art Showcase: The Dutchess & The Duke, Mercury Lounge, NY

are clearly one of the major draws of the Sub Pop / Hardly Art showcase, with excited fans buzzing about the group from the beginning of the night until their 10pm set time, and they don’t disappoint with a show filled with quick ditties, folk ballads and plenty of cheeky commentary in between.

The band, who are celebrating a birthday, are uproarious. Singer Kimberly Morrison is in particularly fine form, bantering with Jesse Lortz about the possibilities, not to mention the legality, of inviting a particularly marijuana stoked audience member up on stage to share a quick puff. This attitude, along with their minimal set up (two guitars and a tambourine), gives their performance a feeling of informality, like sitting in a living room, hearing your buddies shoot the shit.

Their actual music tends to blend together, with each song quick and sweet and the tambourine adding a bubbly edge. While musically most of the songs feel somewhat indistinguishable from each other, the lyrics display some fun contrasts. Bouncy tunes like ‘Back To Me’ and ‘Ship Made Of Stone’ balance early Beatles-esque pop with forlorn lyrics like, ‘You got a chain around your heart / Should take it off now and then.’ Meanwhile, folksy tunes, like ‘Reservoir Park’, only benefit from lyrics like, ‘Well I went to see the gypsy to have my fortune told / She said ‘You ain’t got no future, you ain’t never growing old.”

Ultimately, The Dutchess & The Duke’s showcase ends bittersweetly, with the mischievous dialogue misrepresenting the melancholy of the band’s lyrics, but they certainly make for a fun night.