Guitar great Marissa Paternoster and Screaming Females are set to rock Union Transfer
The New Jersey band known for their incendiary live shows are playing in support of their eighth album 'Desire Pathway.'
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“I’m living in a brass bell,” Marissa Paternoster sings on the Black Sabbath-flavored opening track of Screaming Females’s eighth album, Desire Pathway. “It’s too loud, it’s too loud!”
It’s loud, alright: Paternoster and bassist “King Mike” Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty are a classic power trio, a riff rock band whose muscular sound comes across in a riveting live show.
The foundation of a Screamales performance is rock-solid songwriting on tunes that mix aggression with sophistication, collectively composed by the three band members.
» READ MORE: Why Screaming Females' 'All At Once' is the punk record you need to hear right now
The fireworks, however, come from Paternoster’s explosive, virtuosic soloing, often heard while she’s playing and crowd surfing at the same time. That combination of showmanship and dazzling technique led to her being named the 77th greatest guitarist of all time by Spin in 2012.
The trio came together in the mid-00s in New Brunswick. N.J., where Paternoster, who creates the band’s distinctive artwork, studied at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. All but Abbate now live in Philadelphia, but the Screamales are deeply connected to their New Brunswick beginnings and still consider themselves a Jersey band.
“Maybe there was one in your neighborhood growing up, a corner where everyone decided it took too long to go around, so they made their own pathway to cut through,” Paternoster said in a statement explaining the title of the album released on the Don Giovanni label. “There’s this cool unsaid group consciousness that comes together where everyone decides, this is the right way to go.”
In February, the Screamales played a brief but blistering set to celebrate Desire Pathway’s release at Main Street Music in Manayunk. On Thursday, the band headlines Union Transfer, with the excellently named Iron Chic and Paper Bee opening. $18, 8 p.m., April 27, Union Transfer, 1026 Sporing Garden St., utphilly.com.