Despite her embarrassing lack of preparation, ex-Helium frontwoman Mary Timony managed to successfully smile her way through the first show of a three-week touring stint. The backing of her friend Christina Files on drums did little to assuage Timony's apparent solo stage fright. When she wasn't nervously tuning her guitar or chatting with the audience, however, her artistic merits emerged. Considering the softer territory of her recent solo debut, Mountains, Timony set out to prove that her past title as the ideal "punk princess" was still intact. Sure, the pair played strictly new material, but the songs came through with an abrasive coating, the type of atmosphere more often associated with early Helium. With Files' offbeat drumming and Timony's captivating voice holding steady, the two kept the cobwebs from gathering, aided by everything from viola- and keyboard-laced ballads to extended noise-rock.
-from the Cleveland Free Times Published May 10 - 16, 2000 |
