Watching
Lemuria
perform is like listening to your best friend’s band, except in
this case your friend’s band is really good and has been touring
and making music for almost ten years. From the way they set
up and break down their equipment to their on stage chemistry, the
indie/punk trio radiates an intimate feeling of connection that draws
the in audience.
The band opened with
tracks their recently released album,
The Distance is So Big,
but jumped around their other albums, as well as handling a minor
crisis with a faulty bass drum pedal. It was the most revealing part
of the set because it was just the drummer, Alex Kerns, and
guitarist/lead singer, Sheena Ozella, talking with the audience.
So many bands and
performs put on a show that more about image than the music their
performing and watching this trio perform felt very different than
watching others.
If
I’m honest about this gig, it felt nice. Not sounded nice, actually
felt nice, but not in the way where this genre of alternative and
indie rock is starting to fall into the vacuous category of
nostalgia.
This is a band that has
a post hardcore and punk feel to them, but came at the tail end of
the post hardcore movement. Now bands like Braid and Texas is the
Reason are on their last tours or on a reunion tour or a nostalgia
tour, but Lemuria came about a little after these bands had broke and
then started to fade out of the spotlight (basically once being ‘emo’
started being a bad thing).
Lemuria is the band
that kept making awesome music, that has a clean and crisp sound to
it, that feels refreshing and unique. You want to see them play up
close because they’re so honest with how they perform. They aren’t playing
that album you loved ten years ago. They play the one the just
released and you’re and making a part of your life now.
Thanks to Albert Testani for kindly contributing this article. For further info regarding his work check out his website.
