I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 3, 2019] Screaming Females

I was surprised and excited to hear the Team Dresch were doing a tour of our area.  They were playing at Monty Hall (a venue I love) as well as Union Transfer (a much bigger venue that I love).  It was a little hard to parse that they would play a venue with a capacity of 200 followed by a capacity of 1,200, but there ya go.

I would, of course, prefer the show at Monty Hall; however, for some reason, the Union Transfer show was also featuring Screaming Females.  So there was no way I could miss a chance to see this great band one more time.

Before Des Ark, I was looking at Screaming Females’ merch and actually wound up buying a CD directly from King Mike, which is pretty cool.

After Des Ark ended, Screaming Females came out.  They set up their own gear quickly and efficiently and then started playing.

The focus in Screaming Females is Maria Paternoster because she is a phenomenal guitarist and a compelling singer and front woman.  But we mustn’t forget King Mike Abbate on bass and Jarrett Dougherty on drums who have made up the band since the beginning.  All three were in fine roaring form, working like a tight machine.

I know a lot of the Screaming Females’ newer songs, but not much of their older material.  And yet, I am terrible at figuring out which songs they played at the shows.  The last time I saw them, they headlined and played 11 songs–four songs from their new album and three from the one before it.

This time, they played for about an hour and ripped through about ten songs.

Once again I was in front of Marissa and once again I marveled at what a great guitar player she is. Mostly I marvel because they play fast punky songs without any real soloing and yet when she starts jamming, she plays some serious guitar hero solos.

I thought I would remember the songs (usually I take a short clip of each song to try to remember the order), but I don’t.

I know they played “A New Kid” which goes back to their Castle Talk album.  In between songs Marissa would stand back and do some guitar solos as the band transitioned to the next track.

I really like the new album, so I was pretty psyched to hear the rocking “Black Moon” and “Soft Domination.”

It’s funny that all eyes are on Marissa who is singing as well.  So much so that it seemed like King Mike and Jarrett were almost a unit standing off to the side.  And yet they are totally in sync with each other.

The only other song I can remember them playing is the absolutely lovely “Bird in Space” (which they didn’t play last time).

AS with the last time, the band was totally n -nonsense.  Marissa talked a few times, telling us who they were and thanking Team Dresch and then going right back to being fantastic.

After their ten or so songs, they packed up and left.  And that was that.

I’m not sure what one of their New Brunswick house shows is like–do they play for two hours?

Whatever the case, they are a dynamite live band.

2006 Baby Teeth
2007 What if Someone is Watching Their T.V.?
2009 Power Move [PM]
2010 Castle Talk [CT]
2012 Ugly [Ugly]
2015 Rose Mountain [RM]
2018 All at Once [AaO]