Her black bangs hiding half of her face, her mouth so close to the mic she was almost swallowing it sometimes, Marissa Paternoster had this unique way to open her mouth so large and so inelegantly for a girl, it was a bold statement by itself.
With a small stature and a juvenile face, she looked like a teenager version of Joey Ramones, but the voice that came from that girl was so powerful, like a raw and loud squall or a bitter and angry roar, she captured the attention of the crowd right away at the FYF, early in the afternoon when the sun was probably at its hottest.
Screaming females are Marissa Paternoster on vocals and guitar and King Mike on bass who have played together since high school, as well as Jarrett Dougherty on drums. ‘We are from New Brunswick, New Jersey’, she quietly said between two songs.
There was a sort of New Jersey invasion at FYF, with Titus Andronicus, Ted Leo (whom I unfortunately missed, fuck quantum physics! Nobody can be at two places at the same time in reality), and then Screaming Females.
The crowd cheered up immediately after her declaration… ‘Why do you like New Jersey so much?’ she replied sarcastically.
Wearing a red and black dress, black panty hoses and black and white old-fashioned shoes, she seemed to have this great sense of humor combined with a stage presence no one would assume when seeing her, a sort of Janis Joplin of punk.
Their fresh take on punk rock with some long distorted jams of dueling guitar and bass, and Marissa’s powerfully convincing and long aggressive screams appeared genuine to the crowd who began to start dancing, jumping, moshing, and making all the usual crazy unpredicted moves I expected. It was sure difficult to resist moving with the flow, and it was not so bad, but I regretted the safety of the picture pit at times!
Their tight and furious sound, and especially the scary and menacing howling tone that Marissa can produce, were intensively perceived by everyone. Hey, it takes her vocal cords to make sweaty and thirsty people move and jump by 100ºF. She rarely smiled, but when talking about the band’s records, she made a grin, ‘They are really hard to find’. After such live shows, I bet they will not be so hard to find soon. (Editors Note: Joe Steinhardt, rock nyc’s friend, co-owns their label Don Giovanni Records and you can buy SF at http://dongiovannirecords.com/) After such live shows, I bet they will not be so hard to find soon.