Show Review: The Sour Notes, Ume, Marnie Stern at The Mohawk

The Mohawk stacked their bill last night, giving attendees much more than their money’s worth for six bands on both stages. Attendees could choose to show up early for Danielson and two more bands on the outside stage, or just pop in later for the inside show, starting at eleven. To those who stayed for each and every band: congrats, that’s a lot of standing and listening, and you have remarkable musical depth. Some of us, however, cheated and came late, less excited about seven-piece Christian family bands than hard rocking power trios.

Speaking of hard rocking power trios, the description fits both Marnie Stern’s band and Ume pretty well, which is why the sensitive sounds of locals The Sour Notes seemed an odd fit (what, were Those Peabodys booked already?). The quartet did make a fine opener, if not an obvious one, working within the framework of singer-songwriter rock centered on lead singer Jared Paul Boulanger’s heartfelt confessions and, on occasion, slightly off-key but sweet vocals. Assisted by an army of effects pedals and more keyboards than there were band members, The Sour Notes introduced new material from what is likely to be their forthcoming record, Received in Bitterness and turned the nozzle from slow and sad to fast and jumpy enough to keep it interesting.

Ume by Arian Brumby

The stage now warmed up, it fell on our own Ume to set things aflame. The group was one of the early Sunday standouts at Fun Fun Fun, their refreshingly minimalist take on noise-rock a nice antidote to some of prog-indie's more stuffy contenders. Energy oozes from this band, from the quick pace of Jeff Barrera’s drumming to the strange dance Eric and Lauren Larson do when they settle on a particularly monstrous groove. The music Ume make is abrasive and dreamy, enough to satisfy the most rock-starved shoegazer and pop-leaning metalhead.

On the subject of metalheads, this easy classification for guys with long hair who want to rock applied to at least a handful in the crowd this evening, 100% more than usually present at the Mohawk. They came to see Marnie Stern, and she did not disappoint them, leading off with her famous shed-guitar tapping, which would bring a smile to Eddie Van Halen’s now-toothless mouth. Armed with a second guitarist and a wild and fill-crazed drummer, Stern’s band played a steady heap of complicated but slam-danceable rawk, just restrained enough to keep it from entering the dubious realm of math rock but too interesting to fall into catch-all punk.

Marnie Stern by Arian Brumby

Maybe we’ll look back and see two years ago as 2006: The Year Metal Broke or maybe not, but what is certain is that Stern’s riot grrl-meets-Quiet Riot sound blossomed at a pretty perfect time, first with last year’s In Advance of the Broken Arm and more recently with the mouthful This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That. Wow – Fiona Apple, eat your heart out. Anyway, as attendees of the show already know, Stern is playing again at the Beauty Bar at eleven tonight. Come on out to see what you may have missed last night.

The Sour Notes: [website] [myspace]
Ume: [website] [myspace]
Marnie Stern: [myspace]