Returning to shows after such a long break feels emotional. It’s awkward, joyful, and nerve wracking. What time to arrive? What shoes do I wear? How does conversation work? Seeing familiar faces makes my heart soar, but I am also feeling my introvertness more acutely than ever.

Thank goodness for the music. Deep Fake radiates happiness with every note and move. It feels like vocalist/guitarist Kate Walsh is reading my mind when she begins “Untethered,” singing, “I’m in my head again.” The music blends echoing shifting soundscapes with driving punk drums. It’s a killer combo that instantly energizes the room. When bassist Crispin Torres takes the lead vocal (and guitar) for “Lie Detector” he hits us with some swagger. It is like he accesses a next level rockstar energy source. Drummer Karen Fehsenfeld plays hopscotch across their kit, then shifts to a driving punk beat with as much power as they have dexterity. Deep Fake set me on my heels with their last song, “Freeze,” which you can hear on their new release Deep Fake Mixtape. This last song is much darker than the rest of the set. I love the way Walsh’s guitar echos up out of some unfathomable darkly beautiful cavern. Torres was back on lead vocals, and he exercised a lot of angst on this one. The crowd was completely here for it, rocking and moving, sharing in this cathartic moment with Deep Fake.

Emily Jane Powers stands on stage alone to play “Instead I.” The song seems to be telling us about a single day: 

Go downstairs
Read a book
Brush my hair
Write this down
Start again
Hold my own
Lay back down
Pet the cat
Clean the floor

A mindfulness-like litany of actions. When my anxiety gets to be too much, I try to calm the panic and concentrate on an activity, simple observations, the beauty around me. I feel the essence of loneliness and gratitude entwined in those moments and in this song. It’s a stand out track on her new album Isometry and sets a meditative tone. As the band joins her, the music picks up, becoming more punk, suddenly hints of math rock, then shifting to psych exploration. The music cannot be pigeon holed, but is completely, expressively, rock. Powers has a way of moving that is completely her own, and completely in tune with her guitar. She cannot hold still when she is under the spell of the music, when she is singing, her feet shift and when the heat is on, it is like she is dancing on lava, no sooner her foot lands, that it must shoot back up. Like a beautiful and entrancing exotic bird. She sways, bounces, jerks, jumps, bends, but is never broken. There is something of resilience about the music and the way she moves. It is devoid of self-consciousness while expressing self-reflective emotions. Her band supports, following her moves and keeping the songs in perfect groove, until they get lost in the exploration.

The songs go from strength to strength, showing off the depth and beauty of Isometry. “None to Come” strikes home, the visceral lyric “I wanna hold you back and lick your pallet clean” grabs my heart and the guitar interplay between Powers and Ryan Hurnevich that follows has me floating. It feels all too soon when she begins their last song, “Warm Void Thoughtless.” I cannot help but feel this is a perfect bookend to the way her set started. A work centered around panic, depression, and the search for a “better me.” It begins in darkness, but morphs into a soundscape that lifts the audience into a joyful expansiveness. Leaving me with a sense of renewal and hope. 

Headliner, Dream Version began the set with the first three songs of their new self-titled album. “A Mind Can Change” started off intimate and ended with anthem power, “!!!!!” took a darker experimental turn, and “Backdrop Painters” brought the punk party vibes. Lead vocals by Alec Harryhausen morphed to match the shifts in tone with ease. Michael Kunik gave his kit a workout, beating the toms like they stole his favorite shirt. I was impressed by the stoic presence of guitar/keys Eric Brummit, and thrilled later in the set, when he let himself bend with the music.

The core trio were joined on and off by two additional musicians. Guitar heft and interplay provided by none other than Emily Jane Powers. Standout song “I’m Still as Spoiled as the Day…” wouldn’t have been possible without the synthy musical stylings of Jenn Romero. Dream Version delivers a performance that washes away thoughts of anything else. Not that I am magically good at conversing again, but thoughts of life outside of this moment are overridden by the body moving bass, the soothing washes of guitar, the cathartic crashing of drums. Everything carries with it a thrilling sense of being here, now. The feeling, and crowd, was thick. Over the course of the night more and more people had arrived to share in this celebratory triple-record release show. Three local bands performing for the first time in well over a year. There is nowhere I’d rather be. When the full five piece was unleashed on “Romance,” the bouncy party vibes pushed through the space, and masks couldn’t hide the appreciation of the crowd. Everyone is nodding, dancing, shouting out with joy. We are connected by this shared experience. Even if things are awkward, this feels good and right.

-TINA MEAD