NOUN, the new band featuring Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females and Phillip Price of Kayo Dot, played mid-way through Ground Control Booking Abortion Access benefit in Philly on January 25, and they came to destroy.
The band kicked off their set with some frantic shredding- Paternoster whipped her head back and forth like Priss in Bladerunner while Ptice slammed on the drums like Bill Ward. It was fast and heavy. Then, Paternoster approached the mic and started to howl. Comparisons to Screaming Females are inevitable so let’s get it out of the way. NOUN rocks like SF, but it’s at once heavier, darker, and perhaps almost metal or goth. Whereas SFs would launch forward on springy riffs, NOUN slams and crunches. At once, it feels more negative, more dangerous, and more thunderous. Also, it feels more personal. Though, cutting through Paternoster’s poetry style metaphors leaves as much room for your own projection as it does her input.
Mid-set the band played their debut single, “Wanted” as well as the flipside “consume.” Both tunes are beats and feel somewhat like Patti Smith front Black Sabbath- crazy that just two people can summon this amount of noise. To that end, it’s also surprising that two people can make this much of a full on band sound. White Stripes, for example, always sounded sparse by design. But, NOUN feels like legion. Don’t ask me how they do it.
As they flipped from full on metal destruction (think doom, not death) to dark indie soundscapes, the band showed just how many levels they operate at, at once- a lot. The crowd was pretty wowed and people were either headbanging, moshing, or doing the cool guy nod for the entire set. Not to over hype it, but the band got a rousing applause.
NOUN seems to catch Paternoster and Price in the middle of a growth. They’re evolving, which is cool, but it’s even cooler to see how they are merging into a single destruction unit. I think all the best bands tend to hit it off, right from the get go, mind you. To that end, I’m not surprised at how well these two lock together and smash it up.