The Audio Perv

By Michel Dussack

On August 2nd, Austin based rock trio Ume played a ferocious thirty minute set in the Grand Ballroom of Webster Hall as a part of their tour with Helmet and Toadies. Ume filled the room with heavily distorted guitar riffs during their set which comprised mostly of unreleased material thanks to guitarist and singer Lauren Larson. The band opened up with one of their bigger songs, ‘The Conductor’ and from the first few notes played, it was clear that Lauren would not be contained to a small area on the stage. Whenever she wasn’t singing, she was flailing all over the stage, guitar in hand, dropping to the floor to continue playing several times.

While on records the band has numerous intricacies on their songs, those were lost in the live mix in favor of aggression and distortion. Eric Larson on bass and Rachel Fuhrer on drums rounded out the sound of the band, though neither could quite match Lauren’s energy. New material followed the opening song and like most of the bands material, it was led by intricate, yet distorted riffs. While the songs haven’t officially been titled, the working titles of the songs are ‘Battlehead’, ‘Chase it Down’, ‘Bass Face’, and ‘Slow Pog’.

The more familiar sounding ‘Xie-Xie’ and ‘Black Stone’ closed out Ume’s set that went by far too quickly, and the band succeeded in setting the bar high for the next two bands to take the stage. When Ume first began playing, the venue wasn’t nearly full, however more and more people filed in throughout their set and they all seemed impressed. Numerous member of the crowd made their way to the merch table after the bands set to buy Ume’s music and to chat with the band.

Ume’s setlist

1. The Conductor
2. Battlehead (working)
3. Chase it Down (working)
4. Bass Face (working)
5. Slow Pog (working)
6. Xie-Xie
7. Black Stone