"I finished the last gig here with a guitar disaster. So I thought, why not begin with one this time?" joked Mary Lorson, silver-toned lead singer of Madder Rose. The last time the melancholic New York guitar band played the Garage, in February, after the UK release of Tragic Magic, the encore was disrupted by Lorson's broken string. Back in town last night to showcase their new album Hello June Fool, she had to retune after the second number. "I told her to take piano lessons," digs lead guitarist Billy Cote.
The band's fusion of its guitar-driven sound with trip hop grooves in the last two albums seems to have split its following, prompting Lorson to announce on the band's website "Love it or hate it, this is how we sound in 1999. We think it's our best record." The crowd at the Garage appeared to be devotees of the grunge pop and psychedelic guitar riffs of early tracks like Panic On, Swim and Car Song. Lorson tantalised this contingent with the promise of a "strange old chestnut" of a song, which turned out to be Nicky Hokey. But she playfully put it off three times, introducing instead three tracks from the new album, Hello June Fool, My Star and Narco.
These tracks, which sound slight on disc, gained texture and strength from the thrashy, live guitar treatment. Hello June Fool sets a claustrophobic scene of intimacy against epic twanging guitars that seem to pin you to the walls. Shoulda Known, a wistful, escapist melody that promises "I know a place where we can go" features beautiful harmonies and culminates in a poignant, pedal-steel guitar solo from Billy Cote.
Lorson's gentle efforts to engage with the audience provide a welcome respite from the rest of the band's studied nonchalance. "I wanted to dedicate each song to someone, but I got distracted," she says, playing up to the legend of her spaced-out persona.
The only passion the rest of the band showed was when they were all thrashing their instruments in the lush, grungy, guitar-based sound that made their name. And the crowd loved it. The energy and brio with which they performed Panic On, Swim and Car Song were infectious. And for the second encore one of their earliest tracks, Teenage Anxiety, finally got the crowd roaring.
