Thursday 5 May 2011

The ‘Fourth’ was definitely at the Vogue Theatre: Mother Mother with Brasstronaut ~ May 4, 2011

This was only my second show at the Vogue (the first was the mindblowingly awesome Mumford & Sons) and I hold it to be a fine venue. Plenty of room on the floor for dancing and general up-close-and-personal show enjoyment, and a large balcony with a steep rake so there really are no bad seats in the house. Patrons in the first row of the balcony are always reminded not to lean over the balcony itself (there is no railing and it obstructs the view of EVERYONE behind), nothing is to be placed on the edge (safety hazard), and no feet against the balcony (heavy lighting equipment supports are bolted to it).

I arrived by 1930 hrs and found a seat in second row of the centre right (looking from the back of the house towards the stage) section. The entire first row was reserved for friends and family of the band, the last of whom arrived by 2130 hrs.

The opening band was called Brasstronaut, their one brass instrument a trumpet (albeit two types). Trumpet player was also responsible for glockenspiel (which was played simultaneously with trumpet in various songs), cowbell and wood blocks; again some played simultaneously. Great coordination. Other instruments, played by other members of the band, included keyboard piano, bass, guitar, drums, and clarinet.

Their sound had a really smooth groove to it; you could tell that they had jazz in their musical backgrounds. This was most evident in songs that had ‘islands of instrumentation’ as I call it. Trumpet playing half notes or longer in long phrases providing the only semblance of melody whilst everyone else was ‘noodling’ around. No tune you could hum along with per se, but plenty of foot tapping and body movement by the audience. Main singer had a lovely and smooth voice; he was really chuffed that there was a full house to see them open. I don’t suppose he realised it was a General Admission show: if audience members wanted a good seat, they really had no choice but to see the opening band. Good thing they didn’t suck. They were really good musicians and if I had had any cash on me, I would have braved the immensely long queue at the merchandise booth. Sound-wise, on occasion they reminded me a lot of MuteMath. Overall – a nice opening band. I’d see them again – on purpose.

Mother Mother visually and image styling channel the ‘80s. Their logo alone is reminiscent of those bold patterns and hint of the indicative colour combinations. They look it to a not insubstantial degree, but they don’t sound like it (vintage stores must love them). Sometimes that 80s ‘pedigree’ comes through, but overall they sound undeniably fresh and fun. Most commonly they are referred to as ‘quirky’, but I think that comes from the fact that no one’s thought of just the right adjective to describe them and their music.

I tweeted last night that they PLAY – they play with words, with syllables, with vocalisations, with harmonies. And they play their instruments (2 keyboards, bass, guitar (acoustic/electric), and drums. Rather well, I might add. Rhythmically they can be all over the place and yet still be spot on. How do they do that? Vocally, two female singers and a male singer (higher than average voice, but not in ‘falsetto-land’, à la the current (annoying) trend subscribed to by Foster the People, MGMT, Awolnation, etc. It affords them the capability to split chords so tightly that it’s on the verge of dissonance and intentionally so. They have excellent pitch; with harmonies sounding like that, it’s crucial. Very clever. Very creative. Very, very good. And such a treat to see them live.

Good setlist (slow-slow-quick-quick-slow): O My Heart, Body of Years, Try to Change, Ghosting, Hayloft (nearly brought the house down), Wrecking Ball, The Stand (different from album version and segued in between Body of Years I think), Baby Don’t Dance, Born in a Flash, Simply Simple, Oleander, to name a few. There was interaction with the audience (the number of f-bombs was a bit surprising considering ‘all ages’ in Mother Mother’s case meant a lot of pre-teen children (I was sitting beside three of them), not just the ones just shy of the legal drinking age) and sincerely expressed gratitude, with a special shout-out to mothers everywhere. Two songs comprised the encore. Arms Tonite was one of them. Just shy of 2 hours of music I believe (I really should wear a watch and checking the mobile in a dark balcony is just obnoxious). I was home just past 2330 hrs (and asleep by 0005, I’d wager).

Aaahhh. What a fun night.