This Friday night at Doug Fir Lounge marks a homecoming show for Genders, returning from a brief West Coast tour with another of the evening’s outfits, New Madrid. Add The Ghost Ease to the mix and it’s a show not to be missed.
All-female power trio The Ghost Ease will kick the evening off with a slow, but powerful punch. Expect to be delighted with celestial vocals, thoughtful story and drums to batter away the memory of your working week. Catchy undercurrents of old school guitar riffs are complimented by vaporous melodies, and I can’t help feeling a little Tim Burton after listening to the album.
New Madrid are in town from Georgia next, and I am excited. What a joy to hear a band that not only has the basic talent and beyond, but clearly has a great skill for creating an entire sound. Their 2014 11-track album, Sunswimmer, is a feast of orchestral swells and punchy anthemic verses, delivering complex classic guitar that Chris Rea would be proud of and full harmonies to please all of you Beach Boys fans.
Genders close out the night. Their national tour last year with Built to Spill was followed by a debut album, which has caused much a flutter. Maggie Morris’s warblings are enough to make you feel… anything she wants to make you feel – an intoxicating control in a front person. With exciting syncopation experimentation, Katherine Paul’s drumming skills are wicked. A kind of New Wave sound, I cannot wait to see if it translates into live performance, and from what I am told it is irrefutable.
– Jennie Chapman