Despite some generally lousy indicators (the economy, the environment, international relations), the world faces 2009 with a sense of hope for better days ahead. Whether or not that hope is well-placed, don’t we tend to close off the year by thinking sunnier times lurk around the corner?
My musical 2007 ended with a big bang of promise for 2008. It happened at Marah’s December 8, 2007, gig at the Bowery Ballroom on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Yet for this group, which I consider to be one of the finest true rock ‘n’ roll bands, 2008 proved to be not a bang, but…whatever that sound is when someone sits on a whoopee cushion.
At that Bowery Ballroom gig, the group was at its expansive best, fleshed out with horns, bagpipes, the girl-group backing vocals of the Shalitas, plus a six-piece core configuration that had been honed into a razor-sharp live outfit. The set list included a brace of tracks from the then-forthcoming album Angels Of Destruction!, alongside a selection of Marah favorites, some Christmas tunes, and a sincere cover of the theme from All In The Family. The set proper ended with an epic charge at the new album’s centerpiece, Serge Bielanko’s zonked-out stream-of-consciousness stomper “Wilderness”. It appeared that after so many fits and starts and hard-luck endings, 2008 might be Marah’s year after all.
A clip from that Bowery Ballroom gig, December 8, 2007
And then another hard-luck ending. Just as the group was about to hit the road in support of Angels, the current lineup exploded. After what was only vaguely described online as an intra-band “mutiny,” half the members were jettisoned, leaving only Serge, his brother Dave, and keyboardist Christine Smith. Touring was largely canceled, and momentum fizzled. Then Serge took a break to start a family, leaving a giant question-mark over Marah’s future.
Far be it for me to second-guess their decision to pull the plug. I’m sure my own disappointment that more people didn’t get to hear Angels Of Destruction! is dwarfed by the players’ distress, but also by the joy of Serge’s parenthood and, just maybe, hope in a musical reboot. Marah is working on a new record and performing the odd gig as a Serge-less trio. Maybe 2009 will bring better days.
Where does the time go
When you’re talkin’ to a savior that’s a cross around your neck?
Through the eye of the needle
We’re just tryin’ to sail to heaven on an old shipwreck
Angels of destruction, the angel of redemption’s got you beat
Or so Marah sang on the album’s title cut. Heck, it’s been a rough year for a lot of people. So if Angels isn’t the best record of the year (it’s up there) or the best album of Marah’s career (although it contains a couple of their finest songs), it will be my go-to record when I want to remember how messed up things got in 2008, and to reflect on how to find the inspiration to get up off the mat and come up swinging.
