Photo credit: Kelsea McCulloch
Upon exiting Galaxie 500 in 1991, Dean Wareham formed Luna, a band that replaced Galaxie 500’s brittle jangle pop with a sturdier, more guitar-centric sound. During their initial run, Luna operated within the major label landscape, which from 1991 to 2005 was a quickly evolving industry. After their breakup, Wareham continued to work on music with wife and Luna bassist Britta Phillips, as well as releasing solo music and scoring music for Noah Baumbach films. Then, after a decade apart, Luna reconvened in 2015 to tour Spain and the U.S. With the release of a covers album and an instrumental EP earlier this year, it is safe to say that Luna is back to being a fully functioning unit.
The band’s first Milwaukee show since reuniting began with an opening set from Big Mother Gig. The crowd filed into Turner Hall Ballroom early to catch this formerly Milwaukee-based (now Los Angeles) band. Their middle-of-the-road alterna-rock was enough for moderate success in the early ’90s, but a quarter-century after their breakup, the band sounds even stronger. Their set exuded a confidence that their earlier iteration was lacking. It was surely a treat for the longtime fans in attendance.
Following an actual ’90s band was Soccer Mommy, a band steeped in the sound of the MTV Buzz Bin bands of 1995. They easily could have opened for Helium if it wasn’t for the fact that the members of Soccer Mommy were likely born around the time of Helium’s touring days. Their set of syrupy bedroom pop pushed forward at a constant but relaxed pace. A broken snare drum did little to slow their momentum. A young band touring with a legacy act, Soccer Mommy carried that weight admirably.
Dean Wareham emerged from backstage with a Warholian mop-top as his Luna bandmates filed to their positions, all smiles. Through the first few songs, Wareham sang with a nasal Dylanesque tone, a lower register than what he’s known for. As the songs came and went, Wareham displayed that he still can take his unique voice to the higher register of his younger years.
|
|
Luna took the casual momentum built by Soccer Mommy and added a brighter energy to it. The laidback sense of the performers combined with amusing between-song anecdotes gave the whole set an Austin City Limits feel. As the band rattled off songs that older fans had been waiting over a decade to hear again, younger fans enjoyed experiencing those songs for the first time. The overall pleasantness of the whole situation was inescapable—so pleasant, in fact, that the band returned twice for encores.
