Face of Cain is tired, and they don’t care who knows it.
“We’ve been in the car now for seven days,” the band’s vocalist intoned between songs, his voice coarse from sickness and, we might presume, too much screaming in dark, smoky spaces. He affected weariness for a moment before letting his mouth curl into a smile. “And now we’re having a contest to see who can fuck up their voice more.”
Restrained recklessness was the name of the game on the night of Saturday, March 28, as WestCo hosted “3/28fest,” an event featuring a stamina-challenging six bands in five hours. Thanks to what seems to have been a booking mix-up, show-goers were inundated with a smorgasbord of bands, whose music ranged from beachy funk-rock to brooding folk. The bands’ styles converged, however, in their shared affinity for stripped-down candor and an earthy, starkly American sound. Each set seemed to evoke a different aspect of the American landscape, lending 3/28fest an itinerant, rambling feel emphasized by an overarching aura of mid-tour weariness.
Face of Cain, who kicked off the show, was the most openly travel-worn of Saturday’s performers, but except for a little good-natured complaining, the band didn’t let it get in the way of their set. Belying their solemn biblical name and Bronx home base, Face of Cain delivered blithe, jam-infused ditties that were redolent of Sublime’s summery, punk-edged sound. The trio overlaid their percussion with light guitar, tuneful harmonies, and a funky bass line that broke, every so often, into popping, Red Hot Chili Peppers-esque solos.
The recently-formed Red Sails, from Brooklyn in New York City, turned the tide with a set of earnest, heroic songs that paired dissonant instrumentals (including the accordion at a couple points) with wailing, almost bluesy vocals. The Red Sails’ front man stole the show with his impressively clear, soulful, and controlled singing style, the dimensions of which are rarely attempted by basement bands. The Red Sails’ epiphanic sound was reinforced with elemental, almost biblical lyrics that made some of their songs sound like southern spirituals tinged with a hardcore lilt.
The night took a turn for the subdued with the Fever Few, the alias for veteran folkster Bethany Walk-Spiers of Brooklyn and Philadelphia. In the tradition of other post-Ani DiFranco urban folk singers, like Malcolm Rollick and Amelia Maryna, Walk-Spiers appeared in a collared shirt and tie, carrying them on her lanky frame with all the gravity of a traveling salesman. The outfit seemed perfect for the quiet-voiced Walk-Spiers, who related haunting and spooky love songs, and rattling gypsy ballads like a troubadour version of Cat Power. She topped off her set with a plaintive, full-bodied cover of Bessie Smith’s “Send Me To The ‘Lectric Chair.”
Next up was Sleep Station, another folk project reduced to its singer, David Debiak, and bled from the same urban-troubadour vein as the Fever Few. Debiak brought a campfire feel to the rainy night with cozy, lonely songs about love and traveling. Sleep Station’s Myspace page reveals that much was lost without the rest of the band, but Debiak still managed to put on a solid one-man show.
Headliners Motel Motel, hailing from Brooklyn, revived the flagging crowd a little before midnight with a hyperactive set of raw country-rock, self-described as the “desperate, loud rattling of America’s motel rooms and their cloistered road warriors.” Although Motel Motel generally sports a more folky, contemplative sound, complete with harmonica and string orchestration, the band demonstrated it’s faster, more stripped-down side on Saturday. The haunting, harrowing songs were propelled by relentless bass and percussion, along with two cat-yowling guitars, and a keyboard that bassist Timo Sullivan pounded with the violence of an earthquake. Vocalist Eric Engell matched the instrumentals shriek-for-shriek, with a blistering waver that made him sound like a male Karen O.
Finishing up the night was Sing! Mr. Sewing Machines, the latest incarnation of 3/28fest organizers, Max Horwich and Ben Seretan’s ongoing musical project, which has performed for the last two semesters under a variety of names, including the Ghost of Ben Seretan, Indeterminacy Haircut, Psychedelic Combat, and A Walk to Remember. Although the project has included almost as many members as it has band names, this time, the lineup was pared down to Horwich on guitar and vocals, Seretan on vocals and bass, Max Lavine ’10 on drums, and Adam Tinkle ’08 on slide guitar. The Sewing Machines performed a variety of material, beginning with a cover of Tom Waits’s “Never Let Go,” and continuing on with a variety of songs written by individual members of the band. The Sewing Machines’ loose-limbed, dynamic rock kept the WestCo crowd in rapturous dance, which reached its peak with Ben Seretan’s brand new “Oak,” a catchy, quirky song that managed to sum up the night’s energy in a series of collective “yips.”
All in all, organizer Horwich seemed pleased with the night.
“I was really excited to be playing with Motel Motel,” he said. “I saw them over the summer playing with Bottle Up and Go, and they’ve been one of my favorite new bands since then. I wish more people had stuck around for the quieter acts in the middle, but these things happen, I guess.”
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