Pageants: Local Band We Love

Pageants is the new project featuring Rebecca Coleman from Avi Buffalo and Devin O’Brien.

When I saw the band perform at the Bootleg Theatre a few months ago, it was a duo performing with a drum machine. The crowd was small, but the attendees were telling. Mostly writers and other music industry folks. One listen to the band reveals why.

Gorgeous soaring vocals with a familiar garage-y sound lending some credibility to the current surge in female-fronted indie rock. The vocals are key for me because while a lot of the other bands mining the same territory are pretty great, the precious and fragile vocals can wear thin.

Coleman summons a delivery that belies her age. Barely into her 20s, there is a soothing confidence of someone who has had the benefit of experience with a great band, as well as an eagerness to break out and create their own thing. This is it.

The songs are wonderful. Layers of mellow guitars, hooky melodies and Coleman’s infectious croon.

I love it when I come upon a band in its early stages, as do most music enthusiasts. Sometimes the evolution is as interesting the music they produce. I’m eagerly watching for Pageants next move.

— Chuck P