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Volume CXXXIII, Number 17 |
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Indie rockers Rainer Maria please Pub crowd, lose jacket
KELSEY ABBRUZZESE
STAFF WRITER
Rainer Maria brought its indie, emo-flavored rock to Jack McGee's Pub, but lead singer Caithlin de Marrais left without her jacket.
After the band played a rousing set to the senior crowd and others on pub night, de Marrais's peacoat, which had the band's van keys in the pocket, disappeared. The coat was dark blue and rather non-descript, which made it likely that someone accidentally picked it up. Fortunately, the coat was returned to the Smith Union Info Desk Friday morning.
Other than this miniscule blip on the radar, WBOR brought a terrific band to pack the Pub for its annual show. The trio from Madison, Wisconsin, got its name from the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who de Marrais and Fischer studied at a University of Wisconsin poetry workshop. The poems that de Marrais and Fischer wrote in the workshop later became the band's first songs, which they played last Thursday.
Like its name, Rainer Maria's sound is unconventional. The strongest aspect of their music comes from de Marrais's vocals, differing from most emo bands, which are fronted by male singers. De Marrais carries her own without relying on anger or teeny-bopper appeal, but instead using her vocal and musical talent. She also writes most of the songs and took over vocals completely in 2001 with the band's third release. It's not every day you see a band fronted by a female playing bass guitar.
After campus band Makeout opened, Rainer Maria started its set with "Artificial Lights," a track from the January 2001 album A Better Version of Me. De Marrais's strong, emotive voice and Fender Precision bass guitar, backed by guitarist Kyle Fischer and drummer Bill Kuehn, combined power and delicacy in their music.
De Marrais was able to belt it out with the best, raising her voice but still maintaining a clear tune. Fischer provided good backing vocals and guitar and Kuehn, a self-described "Keith Moon offspring," lived up to his claim.
Other notable songs from the band included "The Contents of Lincoln's Pockets," also from A Better Version of Me, and tracks promoting their newest album which came out in January 2003, Long Knives Drawn. "Ears Ring" and "Mystery and Misery" were two songs that got the crowd going.
After an encore, de Marrais announced that the band had live DVDs and T-shirts on sale. Luckily, the Bowdoin fans got to see this indie-rock band a few feet away in the small pub setting instead of on a television screen.
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