Here at IWTAS, we attend a hefty number of live musical events. This hobby makes for some long nights, coffee-saturated mornings at our day jobs, and occasionally empty wallets. In exchange, we are afforded the opportunity to interact with St. Louis’ brightest and most hard-working musicians, fans, and venue owners/staff.

This week, we’ve enjoyed what we dubbed a “3 Night Stand” at Off Broadway. In addition to our usual commentary on bands’ performances, we’ll attempt to describe the feeling in the venue each night and other interesting instances that occur on what might otherwise be considered “average” show evenings. Look for 3 Night Stands highlighting your other favorite St. Louis venues in the coming months.

July 20th: My Gold Mask with Tone Rodent and Scarlet Tanager.

Locals Scarlet Tanager opened the evening with gracious, energetic pop. Now slaving under the slightly hyperbolic label of “most adorable” as bestowed upon them in a recent interview, S.T. had a little something to prove on Wednesday. Six members deep and fronted by Susan Logsdon, Tanager is the unassuming antithesis to the South City or Cherokee musical collectives (although their DIY attitude and welcoming personalities would bode well for them in any circle).

Tanager’s Off Broadway debut was both satisfying and imperfect, evocative of a band still finding its “stage legs”. Logsdon spent much of the set angled away from the audience and the rest of the band, focusing instead on multi-instrumentalist Michael (also her husband). While I appreciate their obvious connection, the lack of interaction with anyone else on stage proved a bit odd and isolating.

Tone Rodent brought welcomed ambient sounds to a stiflingly hot night. The veteran rock group has gone through various line up changes, worked with major noise and post-punk names, and is too underrated locally. Hard, loud, talented, and sandwiched on this particular Wednesday between a shiny pop group and duo My Gold Mask out of Chicago, more of St. Louis needs to see a T.D. show or five. This was our first, and we’re all the better for it.

My Gold Mask closed the evening, and delivered an impressive set to a dwindling, heat-weary crowd. Composed entirely of husband and wife team Jack Amondo and Gretta Rochelle, Armondo’s deft guitar compositions highlighted Rochelle’s knock-around drumming style and dark, expressive vocals. Unabashedly inspired by The Cure, Rochelle’s tone changed from suggestive to spunky to salient song-to-song. M.G.M. needs to return to St. Louis as soon as possible, as we’re a musical community that revels in its powerful female musicians.

Note: If you’re sad to have missed out on the My Gold Mask performance, please contact the gentleman who set up a shitty flip cam on Scarlet Tanager’s equipment just offstage and recorded the entire set. The few folks in the room, including myself, were instructed to stay off the dance floor area so as not to block said camera. Dude was no young gun either, thus proving that you’re never too old to be a douchey concert attendee.

More photos from the evening can be found on the IWTAS Flickr site.

And if you’re on Spotify, Dave made a playlist.