After she explored new frontiers with exciting side projects like Wild Flag, Ex Hex and Hammered Hulls, Mary Timony’s more mystical strain of songwriting is in full bloom on Untame The Tiger, her first solo album in almost 20 years.
At Johnny Brenda’s, Timony took those songs to multidimensional realms with a full band (including Ex Hex bassist Betsy Wright on second guitar), and they sounded gorgeous, unsettling, wise and unpredictable, all at once. Memorable riffs snake through numbers like “No Thirds,” “The Guest” and “Dominoes,” culminating with psychological adventure “The Dream,” which ended the main set.
While her earlier solo albums contributed only one tune to the night’s proceedings (“Musik And Charming Melodee,” from 2002’s The Golden Dove), Timony reached all the way back to the mid-‘90s for three Helium songs (“Leon’s Space Song” and “Walk Away,” from The Magic City, and “Honeycomb,” from The Dirt Of Luck) that both anticipated her musical trajectory and peaceably coexisted with her future tunes in the dreaded present.
Teenage tunesmiths Birthday Girl DC opened with compelling, confident songs about growing up and other facts of life, including “Chess, Not Checkers,” “Ibuprofen” and “Check Up.” Singer/guitarist Mabel Canty and bassist Bella MacKaye may be the daughters of D.C. hardcore legends, but their charming melodic sensibility stands out on its own merits in the here and now.
—M.J. Fine; photos by Chris Sikich
