This past Tuesday, two USM connected bands, Marie Stella and the Rattlesnakes, opened for the New Jersey based punk band Screaming Females at Space Gallery in Portland.
Marie Stella kicked off the show with a new song titled “Lonely is Better,” which showed off USM alumna Sydney Bourke’s sweet soprano vocals, powerful bass-playing abilities and growing songwriting talent. Throughout the set, Bourke was well complimented by the stereo playing of guitarists Bryan Bruchman and Matthew Erickson and the strong rhythmic foundation of drummer Jon Donnell. USM junior Katherine Hulit, the band’s relatively new backup vocalist, filled out their lively stage show by gleefully jumping around during their songs. At one point she even leaped into the crowd and danced with the audience before shyly climbing back onto the stage to finish the set.
After a short intermission, during which more people joined the already sizeable crowd milling around the venue, the Rattlesnakes started a raucous set that drew the attention of everyone present. Lead singer Tara Bincarousky, a senior at USM, revved up the audience with her high, forceful vocals and manic hand gestures. At one point, she too jumped into the crowd and danced with some friends in the remnants of a small mosh pit that had formed during the previous song, before returning to her bandmates for a solid finish.
Screaming Females played a spellbinding set that delivered on their bio’s promise that they are “2009’s answer to Sleater-Kinney’s 2006 breakup.” Lead singer and guitarist Marissa Paternoster channeled Corin Tucker’s vocal strength and combined it with a relentless guitar style that kept the audience in visible awe. The band said little except to introduce themselves, but their set showed the talent that is responsible for the trio’s recent rise to national notoriety. The band finished the show with an extended instrumental in which Paternoster strangled the notes from her guitar with such tenacity that it was a wonder her fingers weren’t bleeding by the end of the song.
All three bands stayed true to the DIY Punk theme of the evening and won the crowd over with their belief in what they were playing, a feeling that was carried into the audience and created some new fans by the end of it.
The power to win over an audience will be an important one for Marie Stella in the coming month. At the end of October, the band will play their first two out of state shows at the legendary CMJ Music Marathon in New York City, Oct. 24, followed by a show in New Jersey, Oct. 25. They hope to use their New York area shows to shed light on the talent in the Portland music scene. “I think it’s unfortunate more Maine bands don’t get exposure,” says Hulit, “not just for the bands but for the potential fans out there.”