I never to miss an opening act. I learned that lesson on my first concert adventure in June of 1971 at The Fillmore East. I attended a show by headliners Bloodrock. Bloodrock you might not remember unless you’re my vintage and even then probably for one radio hit, the dirgy “DOA”. Opening for them was a scraggly batch of Arizonans who were in the process of interpreting bits of the guignol and inventing horror rock. They were called Alice Cooper (as in the band, not the man). You get the point.
Once again – just this week at MOG’s CMJ event – I was blown away by a great opening band, Screaming Females. Screaming Females are in reality one screaming female, Marissa Paternoster, who lets her guitar do most of the screaming. Michael Abbate is on Bass and Jarrett Dougherty is the drummer.
It’s about big chunky distorted riffs you’ll actually remember, sleek not ploddy, punky vox with an interesting vibrato, nimble guitar solos that are integral to their songs melodic structures. Their CMJ set featured a healthy helping of tunes from their newest album. It’s called “Castle Talk” and it was released just weeks ago on Don Giovanni Records. I bought a copy at the merch table and have been enjoying their other albums on MOG the past few days.
Click any image to launch the lightbox gallery.