Milwaukee Wisconsin’s favorite sons Maritime fired off the baneful beauty “Guns Of Navarone” from their consequential new clamor Heresy And The Choir Hotel last night, lighting up a swarming thicket of young, intoxicating kiddos at the sweaty Showbox Theater in shivery Seattle America. The majority of bantam teens spent oodles of their parents cash to dance, scream and “Bleed American” with forgotten poppers Jimmy Eat World, whose Butch Vig produced sixth studio album Chase This Light comes out October 16, same day as Maritime’s treasured new prize.
Maritime’s blustery set reaffirmed the barbarous vigilance captured on Heresy And The Hotel Choir with Dan Didier’s strident stick stabbings and Davey von Bohlen’s crispy howls. Justin Klug scuffed some snarly bass lines while Dan Hinz punched keys, hummed backing vocals and immensely enhanced the new album’s boisterous guitars.
A reputable sophistication shined off the ageless faces of these married men, some with little rockers kicking and screaming back in cheeseville as their hardworking daddies projected two-hundred percent of unfathomably tight music for a handful of faithful, unearthing new rocks of incalculable value with unflappable guile.
Top-heavy with new material, the boys took no prisoners as they imitated the determination Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman portrayed in the movie Glory, storming over a steep hill and blindly into an unknown fate with nothing to lose and fire for eyes. The set was fueled by a passion for these prize recordings that were delivered tenaciously with the attitude, silliness and confidence that only comes with the supreme achievement of ensemble status.
This incarnation of Maritime played with fun, comfortable energy that exploded like one of those gigantic thumping fireworks that pops with colossal immediacy then showers a delicate sprinkle of twinkling sparks into the absence of light. Then, during the headliner’s second song, Davey comes back on stage to sing “Crimson And Clover” with Jim Adkins and the unbroken JEW-crew.
Throwing only one stone through Glass Floor, the fantastic and frenetic set efficiently gassed up idle engines from We, The Vehicles including “Parade Of Punk Rock T-Shirts, We Don’t Think, We Know,” “German Engineering,” “Calm,” “Tearing Up The Oxygen” while “With Holes For Thumb Sized Birds,” “Pearl,” “Love Has Given Up,” “Science Fiction” were a just a taste of the towering fireballs served hotter than brimstone off the band’s breakthrough marvel Heresy And The Hotel Choir.
“Pearl” @ Schubas / Chicago, IL on 6-18-07
