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Topic: Marah Kicks Ass! (St. Louis - 3/23/06) Return to archive
24th March 2006 02:51 AM
Barney Fife Marah Kicks Ass!

What a great band! I want to say a big thank you to the good folks at the Hank III Cussin’ board for turning me on to this band! I saw Marah tonight at Off Broadway in St. Louis and although they only played about an hour and 25 minutes, they were very fabulous and satisfying.

There were three bands on this KDHX-sponsored gig for $10 and I missed the first two pretty much on purpose because I was at happy hour with some compadres from work. I arrived at Off Broadway about 10:03 p.m. and actually found a place to sit in the crowded bar. The band – from Philadelphia - went on stage at 10:28. They played rockers, and some mellow ballads too. They had some really good hook melodies in their songs – the stuff that makes you hum along and tap your foot. I like guitar rock, so this stuff made me happy. After a set of about an hour, the band was called back twice by the enthusiastic audience for encores.

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors: Marah is a band every serious music listener should see when they roll into town!

Up next at Off Broadway: Tom Russell
24th March 2006 02:58 AM
pdog Thx for the heads up. I hear that Hank III board is great!
24th March 2006 03:51 AM
SheRat
quote:
pdog wrote:
Thx for the heads up. I hear that Hank III board is great!



Yep. The Fightin' board in partickler.
24th March 2006 07:26 AM
Barney Fife
quote:
SheRat wrote:


Yep. The Fightin' board in partickler.


The Fightin Forum is fun, but the place in general is the best music discussion site on the 'Net I've ever seen.
------------------
I think a lot of Stones fans would like this band Marah.
24th March 2006 09:08 AM
Taptrick
Barney Fife: Are you talking about Off Broadway in Baden ? ? ? ! ! ! That is one of only three places I have ever played guitar live in my life. I was just there visiting with friends seeing a band called We3 or something like that. So the lead singer yells out that they like to have people spontaneously play with them on Saturday nights and asked if anyone can play. my friends start yelling at me to get up there but I don't want to....I mean I never even seen these guys before much less play anything. Then the lead singer starts to call me a pussy for not trying and I figure it would be more embarassing to endure the name calling than to get on stage. So I get up there and he says, "what are you going to play?" The first thing I could think of was Hey Joe and I actually got through it fairly well.
So I wonder if we know any of the same people. Nik Vogt, Steve Godzak, Holly Freeman, Bob Hatina, Keith Burton, the Quirks, I think the bass player was an Almus but I don't really know him?

24th March 2006 09:13 AM
Break The Spell
quote:
Barney Fife wrote:

I think a lot of Stones fans would like this band Marah.



They sound promising, what style do they play? I'll have to check out some live samples if they have any.
25th March 2006 09:24 AM
Barney Fife
quote:
Taptrick wrote:

Barney Fife: Are you talking about Off Broadway in Baden ? ? ?




No - This Off Broadway is in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Sorry, but thanks for posting!
25th March 2006 09:30 AM
Barney Fife
quote:
Break The Spell wrote:


They sound promising, what style do they play? I'll have to check out some live samples if they have any.



It's guitar-based rock and roll with a bit of country influence in an Americana vein.

Here's their website:

http://www.marah-usa.com/home.php

Here's the allmusic.com summary on them:

Biography by Heather Phares & Tim Sendra
Philadelphia's eclectic, rootsy rock quartet Marah consists of singer/songwriter/guitarist/banjoist Dave Bielanko, guitarist/vocalist/harmonica player Serge Bielanko, bassist Danny Metz and drummer Ronnie Vance. Dave Bielanko, Metz and Vance formed the group in 1993; brother Serge was so impressed with their sound that he wanted to join Marah, which he did in 1995. Marah found an unofficial fifth member in producer/engineer Paul Smith, who was similarly taken with the band's Replacements-meets-Springsteen style when he engineered their sound at some of their shows. Smith and the group recorded some tracks in 1997 that made their way to Blue Mountain's Cary Hudson, who released them early in 1998 as the album Let's Cut The Crap And Hook Up Later On Tonight on his Black Dog label. Both the album and their performance at that year's South By Southwest Music Conference were hailed by prominent artists and critics, including Rolling Stone's David Fricke and Steve Earle. Earle asked Marah to record for his label E-Squared and the results, Kids In Philly, was co-released by E-Squared and Artemis Records in 2000. Two years later, Marah released their third album Float Away With the Friday Night Gods which featured the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, on backing vocals on one track. By the time of 2004's 20,000 Streets Under the Sky the group had moved to Yep Roc and picked up Superchunk's Jon Wurster on drums. For the next album, the brothers Bielanko decided to record quickly and loosely, trying to capture the intensity and abandon of their live set. With the help of Kirk Henderson on bass and various keyboards, Mike Brenner on stringed instruments galore and Wurster and Dave Peterson on drums, If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry was a rambling, loose and brilliant record that landed on the year-end list of many critics and won the group some big name fans like writers Nick Hornby and Stephen King. The band also released a holiday record, A Christmas Kind of Town, at the same time. For the tour that followed the albums' releases, the band solidified with Serge and David leading the way with support from Adam Garbinski on guitar, Dave Peterson on drums and Kirk Henderson on bass and keyboards.

Here's a review from a guy on the Marah message board:

Country Boy
Junior Member posted 03-24-2006 07:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been feverishly waiting for a report on the St. Louis gig, and I can wait no longer. I figure I'll post what I saw. It was truly one for the books.
You park on Lemp Street and you walk to club, realizing that Marah is the only the thing happening here. No stars, painted windows, empty streets. No better place for this to happen, right?

Up and into Off Broadway and you pay the lovely lady and it's hotter than usual. Dare I risk sounding cheesy when I wonder if Marah has a certain climate they carry with them when they play a club. It seems that the air gets thick and muggy, the joint gets hotter, when we are amid them. It doesn't get any better, and everyone in the bar knows it, whether they sit rigid or flap their arms and legs and hips.

The Boys opened with a tight, terse version of 'Limb'. It pulls you in, it feels good, like coming home. Dave constantly urges y'all to get up, and some of you do. I know I did. Yet the crowd is different than the last Off Broadway gig. Of course, Beatlebob was there, dancing like some wonderful uncle who doesn't care what anybody thinks. The crowd is bigger and younger, older too. Dave waves his arms in the air again, keeping his cool, wanting you to just get off your ass and move it. And you all did! Man, what a show. Sweat and screams and smiles. So many smiles. Monica, Serge never played 'The Apartment' so passionately, and you were there in spirit. They tear through 'The Closer' and 'Feather Boa' and smooth it out with 'Baby Love' and 'So What If We're Outta Tune'. And then Dave sat down and played 'Poor People' and it was a glorious moment. Stripped down, soulful, real. Like sitting in a fluorescent kitchen at two a.m. in a beery haze, safe with good company. Guitars fall over, Serge shakes his ass, many drinks in us, and two encores later (Maybe three? Clapping hands lose count...) and the Dave urges Serge to stay on for one more. One more, baby! And brilliant notes bounce around the wood walls and you think you know the song--they couldn't be playing it. No. And yes, they push 'Where The Streets Have No Name' out into the air. Loud, playful and soulful. The song finishes the set seamlessly. As though Marah wrote the damned thing. It was that good.

The lights come up, Pizza Sauce gets to work, and we wait for the Boys to come back out for conversation at the bay of the bar. Serge eases into a barstool quickly, smoothly. Dave follows shortly after. I nervously finger a plastic bag and walk up to Serge, now nursing a beer. I set the bag on the bar and thank him for the good show. I pull a couple of books outta the bag and give 'em to Serge--just in case the van breaks down again, I say. He thanks me and returns to conversation and I leave, too broke to buy more drinks and stick around to talk more.

Much thanks to Marah for a fantastic show. Extra props to David and Adam for doing the best job possible. Real motherfuckers making real music for real people.


CHEERS,
JB

25th March 2006 11:29 AM
Mel Belli Marah rocks my world. They were supposed to play in Arlington, Va., earlier this month, but there was a huge water-main explosion in Northwest D.C. that shut down the venue. I was devastated.
25th March 2006 12:40 PM
Taptrick Thanks Barney Fife. I am definitely going to check this band out.

Where in St. Louis are you? I was raised in Florissant, Spanish Lake - and lived in Chesterfield and Dog Town before joining the Air Force. Been gone a while now. FYI - "Baden" is a suburb in North St. Louis. I realize now I am talking about "On Broadway Bistro" which is actually just off Broadway in north St. Louis, while "On Broadway" seems to be on Lemp but near Broadway (?). If I recall, Lemp is doowntown or south of near the the brewery. Confusing hunh?

On Broadway Bistro: http://stlouis.clubplanet.com/clubs...C36E2850627056F


Off Broadway:http://www.offbroadwaystl.com/


Thanks for the tip on the Hank board. I'm checking that out now.



27th March 2006 05:53 AM
Barney Fife I live in Wildwood, but am not from Missouri originally.

I figured "Baden" was in Deutschland!
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