Scorching, Soaring, Searing Screaming Females @ Marquis 15Apr23

Jim wisely chose to come to the Screaming Females concert at the Marquis with me last night. Unfortunately Matt had to bail. The feature act was awesome despite the sound just being OK and our vantage point in the back of the mosh pit being weak and mostly blocking our view. We opened by meeting for dinner downtown nearby at Kachina Cantina, a fine Mexican restaurant nearby. I drove up from COS and parked right next to the Marquis and walked down to Kachina. I was fortunate to meet Marisa milling about outside the venue at which she'd play this night ~ I welcomed her to Denver and thanked her for her music. I didn't take a selfie; dumb move.

Kachina really screwed us a bit on service time. While they did comp us drinks, it put us behind our normal schedule of arriving before doors open in order to score position A to hear & see the show. Hence the weaker "seat."

The lineup included LA punk bands Smirk, who played 1st, and Generacion Suicida. Skimp was less well known and with less published but played some very hooky punk pop tunes for us from their four man lineup.

Generation Suicida was a more hard core Latin punk act. Their leader played melodies and vocals ~ often angrily yelling. Most of the songs were in Spanish so couldn't land on me easily but the band was good... the LP cover is for their latest, Regneracion.

They all were fine but we came to see Screaming Females with Marisa Paternoster on lead guitar and lead vocals. She completely owned her guitar as expected, with not so much lead lines but lead licks dotted with tiny outrageous solos throughout the night... she's righteously one of the top rock guitarists of all time IMO. And with now 8 albums released from the same trio, they are tight and consistent. Marisa has also refined her vocals over time ~ incredibly, I like her newer stuff more. The growl is under control and the screams are right on key. It's all a freewheeling punk vibe but it's even better now IMO.

Given our tough spot in the house I recorded only one song ~ Mourning Dove, the first single from the latest album Desire Pathway. Strong song but imperfect recording by me... surely better in person and on the web in several spots but still enjoyable. Anyway, I was very excited to catch Screaming Females in Denver and they did not disappoint; they were GR8.