With indie rock songs both fragile and powerful, Athens band Mothers delivered a set that left the audience at Stubb’s’ indoor room transfixed and engrossed last Thursday. Falling somewhere between the music of Angel Olsen and Cate Le Bon, Kristine Leschper’s songs balance aching vocalizations with restless, disjointed guitars that are sometimes mellow, sometimes anxious. What began as Leschper’s solo project has begun to depend more on the cast supporting these songs, as sensibilities have drifted from minimalist to more cacophonous and energetic.
At Stubb’s, the band exhibited a masterful degree of restraint and finesse through songs that built and released tension and occasionally flowed together seamlessly. Mothers commanded the room’s mood, as an enrapt audience fell into undeniable head-bobbing and swaying before being cajoled into pensive silence. Though Mothers works with the same basic building blocks as any rock band (guitar, bass, drums, an occasional synth), they manage to employ these tools in a way that feels fresh by accessing a sonic palette that emphasizes Leschper’s arresting vocal timbre along with simmering bass and drums.
We caught the band at SXSW and found ourselves sufficiently impressed, but the band’s show at Stubb’s last week was even more convincing by virtue of the intimate venue and attentive crowd. If you get the chance to see this band, do it.
Check out photos from the show below. All images © Bryan C. Parker & Pop Press International; all rights reserved. Click any image to open set in slideshow viewer.
