live: screaming females

Marissa Paternoster’s voice doesn’t sound like something that would come from a petite 23-year-old who seems shy and a bit uncomfortable when addressing a crowd — but that’s easy to forget when her hands are on her guitar and she starts singing. The Screaming Females frontwoman’s searing melodies are sometimes jarring and staccato, and always brassy with wide vowels, though not always carefully articulated. And as per the band’s name, sure, she screams too, although that’s not so much the focus of the group’s phenomenal new LP, Castle Talk, the release of which the band celebrated at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory on Wednesday night (Sept. 15).

When I first listened to Screaming Females — a few months ago, after hearing from a million people that they were required listening — the first thing I thought was, “HOLY CRAP, I would’ve loved this band in high school!” That’s not to say I can’t/don’t love them now, because I do, but as a girl who listened to a bunch of all-dude pop-punk bands in middle and high school, I can’t help but think about how great it would’ve been to look up to a young punk band fronted by a woman who was taken seriously as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. (I am fully aware now there were plenty of female-fronted punk bands in existence, but I wasn’t fortunate enough to have been told about them.)

Anyway, at least half the crowd on Wednesday consisted of youngish kids who spent most of their time moshing and fist-pumping, with dudes reaching their hands out in awe during Paternoster’s many guitar solos — I could practically see their heads exploding. The band mostly focused on the new tracks, including “I Don’t Mind It,” “Laura + Marty” and “A New Kid,” but also pulled from last year’s Power Move with songs like “Bell” and “Lights Out,” with Paternoster throughout the set kneeling over her guitar while shredding and occasionally put her whole microphone in her mouth.

Aside from when she’s actually playing, the stage doesn’t seem like Paternoster’s favorite place to be: The only one with a mic in front of her, she didn’t say a whole lot, and when she did it was in a meek, high-pitched voice. She’s in her own world up there, as evidenced when she realized how rowdy the crowd was getting (kids were legitimately trying to crowd surf in the couple-hundred-capacity venue). “You can dance, but don’t hit anyone,” she said. “I haven’t been looking at you.”

After the set, the band was greeted back on stage with yells of, “Play some old shit!”, to which Paternoster responded matter-of-factly, “Yeah, we’re gonna! Your wish is my command. I live to please this person.” They closed with “Boyfriend,” from 2007′s What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V.?, half of which was lots and lots of screaming.