The Evens

“Music is a point of gathering,” said Ian Mackaye tonight as he tuned his guitar.

It was an issue I had heard him speak on extensively last spring when he lectured at Franklin & Marshall College in my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I really think he is onto something. Music is not just something to listen to and nod your head along with–it can be a catalyst for change, and in both Lancaster and tonight at The Evens show at Carnegie Mellon University, he argued that it must be used as such, to convert an apathetic generation into a collected politically-concerned power. Too often, shows become exactly what they sound like: a “show”–a spectacle with explosions and flashing lights and stage props like a theatrical production. Those items are all well and fun at times (when seeing the Insane Clown Posse live, perhaps?)–but then what exactly are we going to those concerts for? The question inevitably becomes, “Why is this music being made?” What is it doing for me? Simply entertaining me? Or is it worth something more?

On stage in CMU’s Rangos Ballroom, the only lighting effects were two handmade lamps, inventively built out of microphone stands. Mackaye explained to us, the seated crowd, that we were the only thing that separated this show from one of the band’s practices. We even heard the first public performances of two songs from the new album, Get Evens, releasing on Dischord Records in November.

To those unfamiliar with The Evens, this approach to performance is key to their entire aesthetic. The band is simply Mackaye on baritone guitar and Amy Farina of the Warmers on drums, both sharing vocal duties (which, I must add, were pulled off virtually flawlessly tonight), and their music is somewhat reminiscent to folk-core heroes Against Me!, only with an actual, legitimate political agenda and a brilliant understanding of the importance of dynamics. The performance itself was amazing. The energy Mackaye threw into his guitar was astounding to watch, as was the speed and intricacy of Farina on her ancient Ludwig drum set. It’s a general rule that bands rock harder and better live than on studio recordings, but the level of energy, even for the rather low-key Evens, was really something to behold.

Mackaye kept joking with us about lack of enthusiasm on our part (Farina suggested that we were solemnly observing Columbus Day), but I for one felt like I was really part of the show, as Mackaye suggested we all were. At one point between songs, he returned to the homemade lamps on either side of him, emphasizing the fact that they allowed the band to see us just as well as we could see them. Even while wearing their rather heavy politics on their sleeves, they did not once come off as even slightly pretentious. The community that Mackaye spoke of as he tuned, the one he believes that the performance of music can and should create, was present–not only in the head-bobbing crowd, but on stage as well.

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