The Evens @ The Front Caféand Gallery, Lyneham(22/02/2007)

Fri 23rd Feb, 2007 in Gig Reviews

The Front was bursting at the seams. Like school-children waiting for an important
lesson, most of the crowd sat diligently on the floor, some stood at the back or lingered in
the gallery, others still remained outside, to sneak glances through the door or window.

They were there to see The Evens, a two-piece band with Ian MacKaye
(ex-Fugazi & Minor Threat) on baritone guitar and Amy Farina
(exThe Warmers) on drums, and both members sharing vocal duties. The drums
were what struck first: Farina has a very sharp-sounding style, interchanging drumsticks
from her well-stocked toolkit both between and during songs. She led the songs through
incarnations from heavy to mellow, and her vocal capacity leant itself to this tendency very
well. MacKaye gently highlighted the diverse capacity of the baritone guitar, coercing it to
follow him through his musical moods. They split the lead vocal role quite evenly between
the two of them, and even in this simple, live environment they were able to demonstrate
a distinguished talent in vocal arrangement.

This flair spread into audience
participation choruses on more than one occasion. In You Won’t Feel A Thing, a song
in which they use the analogy of a trip to the dentist to explore the Government’s alleged
diversionary tactics in highlighting supposed terrorist attacks while they did messy things in
Iraq, MacKaye lead the crowd in a well-orchestrated chorus of fade-out line “until the day
you wake up”. In Mount Pleasant Isn’t, an observation of police behavior in a riot in
their home town, The Evens elicited from the audience an emphatic chant of “the police
will not be excused, the police will not behave”, after which MacKaye gave the mostly-
seated audience his own standing applause.

The zenith was the extended
introduction to Sara Lee where he asked the audience to help out by whistling
miscellaneously for a while, which evolved into clicking the roof of our mouths with our
tongues for those of us who couldn’t whistle (and, as I recall, a bird call). It was one of
those beautiful moments. They selected a range of songs from both their 2005 debut album
“The Evens” and their November 2006 release “Get Evens”, including Shelter Two,
Dinner with the President, Cache is Empty, Cut from the Cloth, and Pushed Against
the Wall, each song more captivating than the last.

Above all, it came across
that MacKaye and Farina are here for the right reasons. They have something to say, and
they are good at saying it. MacKaye is a natural raconteur, decorating the set with
interjections of the stories behind the songs. More than stage banter, he presented the
songs as part of a showcase. At one point, MacKaye alleged we were all at a punk rock
show. While some audience members scoffed, I have to agree with his sage analysis: punk
rock, at its heart, is about ideas over image, inspiration over insipidness, awareness over
ignorance. The Evens are from Washington, DC, and the prerogative of the band to raise
certain sentiments presumably shared with capital-dwelling denizens of their land
and ours was not lost on them. And to their credit, they did it extremely well, for they
made their message more than one of mindless rebellion against any specific incumbent
government – they seemed to be imploring their fans to simply remain alert, informed, and
overall positive.

Of course, there is one simple reason why we are going to listen to
them: The Evens display real talent in writing and performing a great collection of stand-
up, shout-it-out songs which refuse to be ignored.