marah

i guess i should post this now while it's still fresh in my mind...

i went to see marah last week. what a kick-ass band. these guys never disappoint. i'm one of those people who hasn't seen them a million times - most fans have - but you can just tell they're a great band when you see them. this was my third marah show, fifth if you count in-store shows where they were promoting an album.

anyway...so it's usually dave and serge bielanko, who are brothers. however, serge is taking care of a new baby (aww), so he hasn't been touring and there were some lineup changes and such since the last time i had seen them. i was a little worried, but i shouldn't have been. dave is a great performer and they still sounded amazing without serge. although everyone missed his harmonica skills. especially on walt whitman bridge. ah well.
if you have never seen these guys, i would highly recommend it. it's like nothing else you've ever seen. they always put on a great show, and are very appreciative of their fans. there is nothing i can't stand more than musicians who ignore their fans. hey, why do you think you're famous and/or rich? oh yeah, that's right, we bought all your shit. well, that's a whole different topic altogether. at any rate, they love their fans, and dave was out in the lobby signing stuff right afterwards. that's comittment.

top five marah songs (i kind of had to do one per album, otherwise this would be a top thirty):

1. for the price of a song - my personal favorite from let's cut the crap and hook up later on tonight. very pretty, very marah.
2. faraway you - off of kids in philly. it was tough picking one song off this. it could have just as easily been "it's only money tyrone" or "my heart is the bums on the street" or "round eye blues"...see, now i'm just cheating.
3. body - off of 20,000 streets under the sky. this is an example of their storytelling...they write a song about someone else, or from someone else's point of view, like this song, and you feel like it really is that other person telling you how it is.
4. walt whitman bridge - off of if you didn't laugh you'd cry. this whole album is really great, again, but this song gives me chills when i listen to it. and that harmonica...guh.
5. why independent record stores fail - ok, well, this one is not on an album...it's on the point breeze single. "i'm kinda t.rex meets the jam" ..... that was me falling in love with words.

i didn't include a few albums but that's only because i limited myself to five songs. there is also float away with the friday night gods, a christmas kind of town, and the newest, angels of destruction. they also have a live album and several other singles out.

so what did we learn? marah is your new favorite band!