Marnie Stern, Barren Girls and Little Big League @ Johnny Brenda’s.

Text by Scott Signorino. Images by Jonathan Van Dine.

On Friday, I accompanied Jonathan Van Dine to Johnny Brenda’s. Our mission: to catch a veritable trifecta of female-fronted indie rock talent – headliner Marnie Stern supported by North Carolina’s Barren Girls and Philadelphia’s own Little Big League.

Little Big League

Up until this evening, I hadn’t been to Johnny Brenda’s for anything other than the gratis oyster crackers served at the bar downstairs, so, this was a night of firsts for this writer: three bands I had never seen before at a venue to which I had never given my patronage. Now, everybody I know who has seen a show at JB’s always tells me how its their favorite venue and after quartet Little Big League kicked things off, I could see why.

Little Big League sounded HUGE – delay pedals chimed, chorus pedals soared and the coy, dreamy vocals of singer Michelle Zauner filled the room as an enthusiastic and supportive crowd bobbed their heads along to bangers like “Lindsey,” “Sports” and “St. John’s.”

If the idea of Cymbals Eat Guitars with a girl singer is your jam, make it a point to check out Little Big League with Titus Andronicus at Union Transfer on June 14^th..

Barren Girls

After losing and subsequently finding their drummer, Barren Girls took the stage by storm, 1977-style. The band tore through tracks from their record Hell Hymns, which dropped April 2 on Merge. Vocalist Carla Wolff commands a serious set of pipes conjuring thoughts of an unholy matrimony between Joan Jett and Danzig-era Misfits. Keyboardist Jenny Williams dropped a Hammond load over breakneck drum beats and fuck-it-let’s-rock-riffage, which got everyone revved up real hard.

Barren Girls wrapped their set up in work-womanlike fashion, bid their goodbyes to a very receptive audience and made way for headliner Marnie Stern.

Marnie, on tour in support of her fourth record for Kill Rock Stars, Chronicle’s of Marnia, is the definition of guitar porn. This girl can shred immaculately and gave us all a taste via a sound check riff with fret board acrobatics. About two songs deep, Marnie encouraged attendees to disrobe after drummer Joe Wong opted to handle the set shirtless and while most concert-goers remained fully clothed, the crowd gyrated and joculated as the band served up a platter of choice notes including “Year of the Glad,” “Risky Biz” and razor-edged, math-rock anthem “The Crippled Jazzer.”

After walking off the stage for about two seconds, the band returned and launched into 2008’s single “Transformer” as an encore, cementing the theme of the evening: rock ‘n’ roll really ain’t just boys fun any longer.

Barren Girls

Marnie Stern

Little Big League