Screaming Females

Photo by John Anderson

Screaming Females

When Screaming Females played the Parlor in 2007 to about a dozen people, you couldn't escape Marissa Paternoster's intensity. She was barely out of her teens, a dark slab of bang overtaking her forehead, eyes focused somewhere on the back wall as her fingers did cardio up and down the guitar and her throat emitted a howl that could pop your spine like bubble wrap. Two and a half years later, the Jersey trio has shaped that post-punk muscle into something very attractive. Gone is the gruff Babes in Toyland-esque squall of the Females' previous albums; third and latest Power Move reforms the trio as an axis of sweat- and spit-shined polish. Sunday night, drummer Jarrett Dougherty and bassist Mike Abbate were the launch pad of Paternoster's eruptions, locking in a groove and then stomping the shit out of it. The songs have a simple formula – beginning, shredding, end – but to experience them live is to witness another angle. When a solo's coming, Paternoster pauses to brace herself, her body going slack, her hands take over, then she pulls the rip cord. Theirs was a 30-minute set, but "Bell," "Starving Dog," and "Buried in the Nude" from Power Move proved guitar histrionics aren't necessarily out of place in DIY punk, especially not when you're Screaming Females and you've all mastered your instruments and know it.