The Burners
Bethlehem, Pa
New Madrid Faults:
Jams for hoodie rockin time. Walk down your street as the first leaves are falling, in deep golden light that tells you summer's gone. Meet a new crush listening to this, with heart exploding excited and anticipating. Build ups and breakdowns featuring a well placed glockenspiel and horn section. Sweet thrash drums backing dancey throwdowns dedicated to getting the crowd full of energy. Their stage presence is so bright and heartfelt, bundles of swirling basslines and triumphant hooks; each member of the sizeable group (6-7 people at a time) is just rocking in their orbit, together composing the perfect soundtrack for setting off into the world on a great adventure. Immediately familiar melodies that stick themselves in your pocket to sing later. Mixtape worthy, super catchy, positive and fun - fall in love over this.
Gods & Queens:
Everybody was too shy to dance for New Madrid Faults, which is a shame- but they nodded fairly enthusiastically to Gods & Queens, a darker more growly group of bearded dudes in denim. This time, it was beer soaked and black. I had images of sinking vessels as they played, seeing lots of time spent exploring the creepy Pennsylvania woodlands and industrial wastelands. I also thought of engines, the sounds of planes, brutal harmonies of machinery which is still somehow beautiful and moving. The sounds of the subway rushing beneath you walking through a city. These songs remind me of destruction and plowing through dark roads with mountains watching from above. Hard hitting bass driven howls from scruffy kids haunted by ghosts and rock radio.
Weston:
Last on the lineup for the Burner's benefit featured the local Valley legends of Weston. The Northampton-Nazareth-Wilson collaborative set the stage for true legacy status, with the solidity, ease, and grace the band showed in their musicianship, and that at least half of the audience members sang along to their tunes.
Generally speaking, Weston was upbeat, edgy, and interesting. The band displayed the ability to completely fill a room with sound, while keeping the individual instrumentation and vocals distinctive and clear. Everyone's voices were in tune and similar, which made the swapping of lead vocals through the night hardly detectable. It also made their vocal harmonies, which was tastefully applied, pleasing to the ear.
Another stronghold of the band was their diversity of musical style. They weren't afraid to breach slow-songness, which was a bold touch to their punky persona. Their songs kept heads swinging the entire time, with the occasional eruption of flailing limbs. And, they played generally really short tunes, which kept the energy high, the vibe diverse, and people moving. All in all, the Weston boys lived up to their reputation of being a serious, focused, and motivated fixture of the Valley music scene.
As far as the general mood of the establishment is concerned, don't let the wood paneling on the walls fool you. The shit at the Burner's is hip.
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