New York – What is it about “girl bands” that makes us feel the need to include the gender qualifier? It’s not like all girl bands are super rare or play any differently than a band with all guys, or guys and girls. Or is it? What’s the difference? Sure, it’s not impressive unless the music is actually good, and when a group of girls are pretty on the outside and shred your face off animalistic on the inside, that’s a whole other level of hot. There’s something even more powerful about it than any other combination. Sharkmuffin is that. Composed of singer/guitarist Tarra Thiessen, bassist Natalie Kirch and drummer Janet LaBelle (who looks straight out of the 60s French pop scene but can wail on a floor tom), are turning heads and grabbing balls with their loud, wildin’ out grunge pop.
They were part of a lineup that was the last show for a while at Emet, one of the handful of loft art spaces around Bushwick that put on legit house shows. The sound wasn’t great since the space is basically a converted brick living room with no acoustics, but it’s places like this where you can catch rock and roll gems on the most basic level. Sometimes things can get awesomely crazy, although at this show kids were less inclined to jump off the 2nd floor balcony into a mosh pit, or even form a mosh pit at all.
That wasn’t for a lack of Sharkmuffin trying to rile everyone up, though. Thiessen made sure to barge into the small crowd, hit the floor, and push some people around during the set. She announced that they were filming a video for their tune “Quarter Machine,” so we should “stop acting like pussies and push each other around a little.” She even passed around a bottle of wine, but the energy just didn’t reach that level. People did at least shorten the gap between them and the band, and there was movement, but not the kind of action that would be super impressive in a video. The cameraman was smart to keep his lens primarily on the band, because they were still going for it all the way anyway. Thiessen yipped, ow-owed, and spit out the lyrics to their songs off the 1097 EP, while ripping out some guitar solo craziness, especially during – well, the entirety – of “TEN TEN.” That’s one swirling cloud of rock and feedback.
Sharkmuffin’s EP is available on Bandcamp, and they have a couple more live dates in Brooklyn to rip up before the holidaze.
Photo By Stephen Griesgraber
