THE FEATURES @ Schubas

The Features
Where: Schubas
When: November 15, 2011
Grade: 4 out of 5 meatballs
Reviewed by: Lindsey Shaw

Whenever I cover a show at Schubas, I like to get right up front and to the far left of the stage, positioning myself so I’m flanked between an amp and the recycling bin… just my thing.  Using the wooden performance-bound planks as my makeshift desk, I awaited live continuation of a Features YouTube video for their song “Lions” that I fell madly in love with prior to the show. Getting more excited as the drummer warmed up, I was almost startled at their sheer, almost over-zealous and collective “hipster” motif. Oh, that trending bunch of non-trendy elusive cats, perpetually denying having any bind to any real style, lacking assertiveness so to assert. How does anyone keep up with this sector?

You note, as I couldn’t help ignoring at this show, plaid patterns, swept bangs, Converse-protected feet and a hipster’s propensity to care to not care. Too layered to understand? That’s where music comes in to put it all together.

Taking to the microphone with a soulful and innocent bearded face, lead singer Matt Pelham enlisted brashness with jovial pluck at the show’s start. Invoking rock mixed with some cartoon-like sound, it was all fun meshed with the necessary dramatics to keep it tough. “It’s the little things that matter most / Your fingers, your toes," Pelham belted, sounding like a Ray LaMontagne on vocal chord steroids while a tambourine tinged in to accompany the clapping crowd.

Achieving a range including everything from a modern jug band playing at a vintage carnival to a psychedelic metal group thanks to snippets of throat gurgling from Pelham, and finely-executed electrical rifts complimented by faultless and riveting percussion, these guys awed. 

“Watch out now, here we come,” they belted in true anthem form, inspiring their fans to sing along Partridge Family style, uniformly clapping with pleasure. At this point I found myself involuntarily swaying and rhythmically bending my knees in a trance. Who was I ever kidding when I thought I might not like their sound? They were right up my "hipster in denial" alley.

Careful not to ever slip over the hard rock edge, Pelham, Roger Dabbs, Don Sergio and Parrish Yaw collectively and efficiently kept balance to stay on a punk periphery sure to encompass bluegrass, pop and some soul, secretly espousing their indefinable hipness.

Showcasing tunes from their album Wilderness, the boys provided rowdiness on stage with intermittent animal noises and raucous energy. “You and I know that nature has her ways…” Pelham asserted on one track then continued with a confessional on another song. “Weeds will grow inside / I know that you’re always right / My deconstruction,” he sang before trailing off and ensuing applause.

While Pelham’s blood-curdling screams were not as well received as his friendly poppy shtick, so goes an artist's quest to not conform and stay as far away from the mainstream as profitably possible. Yet Bieber-inspired hair dos and Urban Outfitters threads don’t concur. Perhaps the only thing the love-soaked, testosterone-charged Features have to hang on to is experimental hollers and kick ass instrumental collaborations.

At the end of the show their plaid was completely sweat drenched, their hair swoops matted, and whether they had intended to or not, they had deflected. So goes a hipster’s plight.