A review of Mother Feather at the Bowery Electric on 4/1/16

With Matt Basile, Chris Foley, and Gunnar Olsen as the oxygen, Ann Courtney as the flame, and Lizzie Carena as her smoke, Mother Feather engineered a conflagration in which one would be ecstatic to burn, a willing sacrifice to all the gods of pop cock rock that are or ever were.

It started with Basile, Foley, and Olsen (bassist, guitarist, and drummer, respectively) filing onto the stage, followed by Lizzie (vox and keyboards), and, finally, Ann, the front woman, shrouded in red. There was the jaunty ribaldry of “Trampoline”, the bass onslaught of “Natural Disaster”, a brand new track, “I.C.U.”, debuted at the band’s BBC Radio 1 performance*, the ever-rousing anthem "Mother Feather", the lustfully inspiring "Mirror", and more, ending with “Totally Awesome”, a song about New York City which would sound insincere or satirical coming from anyone else's lips. But they believe it. So you believe it. Days later, the energy given off by Mother Feather is still with me.

To put things differently: have you ever had sex with a fire? If you’d like to know what that feels like, go see Mother Feather live.

Mother Feather’s new video for “Living, Breathing” (filmed at the Bowery Electric in March) is live now, their debut LP is set for release on Metal Blade Records on 13 May, and later this summer, they will spread their fire across America on the Warped Tour.

* Listen quickly, it's timed.