Ghost Mice, Heathers and Laura Stevenson @ Death By Audio

| Print | E-mail

Wednesday, 17 June 2009 11:08

“We’re here to prove you don’t need talent to be on stage,” said Ghost Mice frontman/guitarist Chris “Clavin” Johnston. However this was not what they, along with their fellow performers, proved at all.

The show started with Brooklyn based Laura Stevenson (frequent contributor to electronic punk act, Bomb the Music Industry), and her band who go by “The Cans.” They played a half hour set made up of primarily new material which they are working on for a split with Bomb The Music Industry, who they will be on tour with throughout July.

Stevenson has a sound that I’ve certainly heard before—the slightly lilted female folk singer songstress, but she pulls it off better then a lot of similar performers. Her band which beyond the typical guitar, bass and drums arrangement included an accordion and horns. The band gave a full sound to her set but managed to avoid overpowering Stevenson’s slightly understated vocals.

The Heathers, a Dublin based acoustic duo far and away stole the show, with their charming stage presence and nearly flawless performance. Neither member of the band were named Heather (it's Ellie and Louise, to be exact) but both played guitar and sung. They played in in perfect unison making fantastic use of melody and counter-melody. Both have fantastic voices and had a great chemistry on stage. They played for a half hour interacting with the crowd and each other. For their last song they were joined by the headliners of the night Indiana based folk-punk act The Ghost Mice.

As soon as the Heathers finished their set Johnston moved forward and announced “Hi, now we’re called Ghost Mice,” to much applause. They played another song with the Heathers after which he and Hannah played about 40 minutes of fan favorites, alongside 2 or 3 new tracks which kept the nearly packed room singing and clapping along. The band’s sound— in particular Chris’s vocals —sound far better live then their recorded material would have you believe, far more spirited—bordering on theatrical —then the minimalist folk of their album work.

-TJ Olsen