I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 27, 2024] Marnie Stern

I knew of Marnie Stern mostly from Late Night with Seth Meyers.  I had heard of her before the show as a notable guitar player (she was on Kill Rock Stars, so she was clearly iconoclastic).  So I was surprised that she was going to be on the show as, essentially a rhythm guitar player.  She was fine on the show, but she never really got to shine in any way (but I assume it was a reliable, steady gig).

When she put a new album out last year, I assumed it would be full of guitar wizardry, but I was surprised at just how weird it was.

But here’s a review of the album from treblezine which sums up her career briefly but nicely

Stern is a straight-up shredder whose playing style errs closer to the joyous fireworks of someone like Eddie Van Halen than she does any knotty, noisy experimentalists. That she happened to run in underground circles is by-the-by—there was always a great pop song buried within the chaos of her music. This is more visible than ever on The Comeback Kid. With her fifth and (you guessed it) comeback album, Stern has continued to chip away some of the raw spikiness of her early releases in service of a dozen stellar math pop tracks that might be (:whispers:) her strongest body of work yet.

I really enjoyed being right in front of Marnie, watching her tap away on her complex melodies with such ease. She also smiled and laughed through the whole set as she sang her complicated, sometimes perplexing, always exhilarating songs.

The rest of her band (whose names I didn’t catch) were also great.  Her drummer was incredible (I think it’s Jeremy Gara from Arcade Fire).  He smashed the hell out of the drums and really excelled at the crazy time signatures of the songs.

There was a second guitarist on stage (no bass) who played similar sounding melodies and chords, sometimes doubling Marnie’s work and sometimes playing against it.

The problem for me was that the two guys were really loud and I felt that Marnie’s guitar and voice were drowned out.  This could be because I was right in front of Marnie and the sound was mixed more for the back of the room.  It also looked like Marnie’s amp was facing the middle, so maybe the people in the center of the stage heard her just fine.

It’s also possible that since this was her first night on tour with the band (she had been playing solo before), they just didn’t know how loud these guys would be.

So basically, I could see that she was playing some amazing chops, but I couldn’t always hear it.

I’m not sure if I would have preferred to see her play solo.  I obviously would have heard her better, but I felt that the full band really made the songs explode.

I guess I’ll have to try to see her again.

It was also fun that her kids were at the show.  She waved to them a few times and at the end of the set one of the boys (maybe aged 6) wanted to climb on stage and “help” clear the gear.

1. Believing Is Seeing ©
2. Plain Speak ©
3. Transformer ⊕
4. Til It’s Over ©
5. Prime ⊕
6. Sixteen §
7. The Crippled Jazzer ⊕

§ single 2024
© The Comeback Kid (2023)
⊕ This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (2008)