Electric Marah
The People's Band is striking back. The new record is in the can and the spring pre-release tour has begun. A few acoustical instruments have been loaded into the van, but Marah is tapping deep into the grid this time around. Northeast to South by Southwest to West to South to Midwest to New England to Philadelphia, the city that loves you back.
With Mississippi's Cary Hudson opening, the Bielankos and assembled dropped into Washington this weekend, spending Saturday night rocking hard at the Iota. The guitars were loud and clear. The steel pedal and keyboard were up in the mix. The moonlighting Superchunk drummer played like he was raised on the stuff. By the end of the night, the harmonica had looped the bar and come back alive.
The unreleased "Trick on Love" opened the night and was followed by a mix of their three albums of material, plus songs from the coming 20,000 Streets Under the Sky. Response was great across the board; the new songs stood up to expectations. "East" grabbed hold of the room in a way few mixed-tempo songs can manage.
Reaching back to their old Rock & Roll Summer Camp collaboration, Marah and Hudson shared the battle hymn "Grey and Blue" to close. Tucked in a room on what've become urban Northern Virginia hills, half traffic lit and otherwise cell phoned, I doubt many there owned the album or had heard the song before. But the crowd quieted down in a way that did more justice to the hills than to urbanity.
A rough setlist and more comments can as usual be found on the Marah message board. An MP3 of "Grey and Blue" also is available from Black Dog Records. The studio sound is more light than heavy artillery, but the drums tell you all you need to know about the live version and the possibilities for filling guitars. Catching the tour would be worth your time.
April 26th, 2011 at 12:02 AM
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