[ATTENDED: February 1, 2022] Mother Mother
I I had never heard of Mother Mother before a few months ago. They have been around for over fifteen years, but recently a few songs from their 2008 album blew up on TikTok. Because I have teenagers, I found out about them second hand.
And I fell in love with the frenetic guitar and lyrics of “Hayloft,” which led me to explore more of their music.
Way back on April 29 of last year, I bought four tickets to this show for me, my kids and a friend. It seemed like it would never get here. Then it seemed like it might get cancelled or postponed, but it did go on, although not exactly as planned.
When I bought the tickets, the band was playing The Foundry. The Foundry is an amazing intimate venue that hold 450 people. I was super excited that they were there because whenever I’ve seen a band there, I’ve practically gotten to high five them. So I was a little bummed when in December it was announced that they’d moved the show to TLA. TLA is bigger (and I usually have a hard time getting there, but it was great tonight). Of course, this is great for the band, as TLA holds 1,000 people. And it sold out, so they doubled their attendance.
It also turned out that Mother Mother puts on a BIG show. Big lights, big sound. They used the whole stage. And The Foundry’s stage is like the size of a dining room table, so the show would have been nowhere near as amazing. So good for everyone.
The lights went down and Ryan Guldemond, Molly Guldemond (who we were in front of) and Jasmin Parkin came out. They stood on the monitors and sang a wordless opening as drummer Ali Siadat and bassist Mike Young came out. And after the briefest pause, they launched into “Seven,” the opening song of their new album Inside.
And it sounded amazing. I couldn’t believe how big the band sounded–Ryan’s guitar was massive and the low end was really pounding–it was great!
Then they jumped to the title track from O My Heart. Their earlier songs are a bit odder than their newer songs, and they kept that oddness in these live versions. The song sounded amazing.
I hadn’t listened to all of their records, so I didn’t know all the songs they played, but it was a great indicator that I liked everything. “Let’s Fall in Love” is witty as it references “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” but sounds nothing like it.
Love was a pretty big thing for Mother Mother, with that song, “I Got Love,” and “Pure Love,” But each song sounds very different and yet distinctly Mother Mother.
Midway through the set they played the wonderful “Arms Tonite” and the crowd went berserk. It’s always obvious when a crowd is excited about a particular song, but it felt like this crowd was more expressive and emotive than any I can recall.
Every song was a rocking blast of fun. Then they mellowed things out for the really lovely “Pure Love.” Molly Guldemond sings the refrain and the rest of the band gently sings around it. By the final time around the refrain, everyone was singing along with her.
They jumped back to Heart for the really fun “Ghosting” (you don’t need….tricks, you don’t need…. treats). Then after the riotous “Bit by Bit” Ali Siadat brought a floor tom to the front of the stage. Ryan played acoustic guitar and Mike Young played the mandolin. They slowed things down for a gorgeous acoustic version of “Wrecking Ball” which was followed by a song from their debut album “O Ana.”
Ryan said how much fun it was to play these old songs again–they had kind of forgotten them. He asked how many people were at their first Mother Mother show and a huge number of hands went up. He was genuinely pleased at all of the new fans that they’ve gotten in the last year or so. He said they’d been coming to Philly for 15 years, sometimes playing to a dozen people. But he knew that some of that dozen were there tonight (he pointed to the balcony).
Originally, Mother Mother was supposed to play two shows at The Foundry, the first one was earlier in the day (at like 5, maybe). I assume that they merged the two shows together–was the earlier show crowd given upstairs seats? I have so many questions.
Then Ryan said that they were going to play a song that they knew was weird when they recorded it. But they had to put it out there. And now, it sounds like the non-binary community has embraced “Verbatim” and made it their own. In fact when they played it, someone in the front row was waving a pride flag and tossed it to him when the show ended. It was quite touching.
But then it was the moment I’d been waiting for. He started playing that wicked guitar lick from “Hayloft.” and the crowd went crazy. I’ve felt the floor bounce at placed before, but this floor was pulsing up and down like crazy. The song sounded great, the backing vocalists sounded amazing and then all of a sudden it was over. It was a weird choice I felt, to break up the most popular song, but in the middle of the song, Ryan played some guitar crescendos and then the band slowed down for Jasmin Parker to sing a verse or two from “Girl Alone.”
Parker has a simply stunning voice–she can hit and sustain incredible notes. I only wished she was a little closer because I never really got a good look at her most of the night. After she hit a hugely powerful note, the band jumped back into “Hayloft” and we resumed our dancing. They followed it with the song they had to write, the continuation of the story that is “Hayloft 2.” It’s a risky proposition to write a sequel to a beloved song, but this one is really good. It references the original in many very cool ways but it sounds very different–much darker.
And that was the end of the set.
A fair question at this point would be “what do you do for an encore?” They’ve played all of the big hits! In fact a lot of people left which was great because we got to get even closer for the encores: The twisted country rock of “Dirty Town” and the twisted rock of “Burning Pile.”
The morning of the show, I got an email from Mother Mother asking if I wanted to buy tickets to their upcoming show. Because, indeed, they are heading back to Philly in October. This time, they’ve scored The Fillmore, a 2,500 person venue. And I hope they sell it out too, because they were super nice and warm and friendly and they deserve the success that they have worked for.
I told the kids, that it’s awesome we got to see them in this small club because when they come back in October and we see them (I already got tickets), I don’t think we’ll be able to get all that close again. But we’ll be able to enjoy them being even bigger.
- Seven ⇔
- O My Heart ♥
- Let’s Fall in Love ≠
- The Stand ∇
- I Got Love ⇔
- Problems ∇
- Body ♥
- It’s Alright §
- Sick of the Silence ⇔
- Arms Tonite ♥
- Life ⇔
- Pure Love ⇔
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Ghosting ♥
-
Bit by Bit ≠
-
Wrecking Ball ♥
-
Oh Ana ⊗
-
Verbatim ⊗
-
Hayloft ♥ / Girl Alone ⇔
-
Hayloft II ⇔
encore -
Dirty Town ⊗
-
Burning Pile ♥
⇔ Inside (2021)
§ Dance and Cry (2018)
≠ The Sticks (2012)
∇ Eureka (2011)
♥ O My Heart (2008)
⊗ Touch Up (2007)
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