Mary Timony plays in one of Earth's best bands (so you don't have to) - Wild Flag @ the Paradise - 3/31
For many of us that play music or play in bands (and lots of us do), sometimes you just have to throw up your hands and admit that you will not top what you have just seen. I have had two of these experiences recently. One was catching sampler-pop act Grimes at Great Scott last week; the other was watching Wild Flag at the Paradise this past Saturday.
In the case of Vancouver-based Grimes, it was more a situation of being bowled-over by her ability to make sublime/approachable pop music whilst rendering rock music completely useless.
In the case of former-Bostonian Mary Timony's Wild Flag, it was quite the opposite case of seeing how rock music, so recently rendered useless by Grimes, was resuscitated back to life.
(check out this video of Grimes playing "Oblivion" from her new album Visions at 2011 Fader Fort. Her Boston performance was much trippier.)
Once Wild Flag took over the stage on Saturday night (following a respectfully-twangy opening set from Labor Pool, and a dreamy interlude from Hospitality), they never let go. For the best explanation of how they managed to do so, check out this clip of Wild Flag covering Fugazi's "Margin Walker."
Down to just one guitar, keys and drums (as Carrie Brownstein decided to just sing on this one) notice how drummer Janet Weiss grabs the song by the neck and throttles it. With just the right amount of push and tempo-play, Weiss played through Wild Flag's set like a force of nature, or like the best drummer that you've never played with--and possibly never need to after seeing Wild Flag play.
When Wild Flag formed out of Sleater-Kinney's ashes last year and started smashing the tour-scene with their live shows, could there have been any doubt that any worthwhile group of musicians who would get into a rehearsal space with Janet Weiss would not suddenly feel ten-times more confident? Congratulations Mary Timony for hooking up with this amazing band. You deserve it, and they deserve you.
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About the author
Jonathan Donaldson is a Boston-based musician, writer, and second-generation music junkie. An Ohio native who moved to Boston in 1998, Jonathan's musical loves include R&B, psych, punk, bubblegum, country, electronic, More »Recent blog posts
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