Saturday night at the State Theatre in Falls Church, Va., indie pop duo Mates of State charmed a youthful suburban audience (and its parents) with the band's signature spunk, charisma and adoration for one another.
Mates of State was preceded by two opening acts, Hail Social and Maria Taylor (of Azure Ray and Now It's Overhead fame). With one too many guitars, Hail Social's set was generally dull and uninteresting, save for their dynamic guitar player. The band stuck to a general rock formula (including representation of every iconic hipster hairdo) and continuously repeated it throughout their set. Maria Taylor and her band, clad in black, stuck to mellow, melodic sounds and had a band-wide chemistry that held the audience's attention and made it clear that they enjoyed playing, not to mention the striking resemblances that the band members had to great celebrities. Maria Taylor's bangs over one eye were delightfully reminiscent of shy Violet from The Incredibles, while her bassist sported a Maggie Gyllenhaal look. The banjo player was a dead ringer for Al from "Home Improvement." This doppelganger effect was enough to keep everyone's attention, along with Taylor's playful, upbeat antics onstage.
Enter the Mates. Despite increasing popularity, Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel remained down-to-earth while setting up their own equipment, which consisted of a vintage 1970's Yamaha electone YC 45 and a drum set from the '60s. Gardner and Hammel definitely had the lively but exhausted disposition of young parents, evident in their consumption of tea and red wine, respectively. After much duct-taping of their ancient equipment, the two opened with the dynamic first track off of their new album, "Bring it Back," followed by "The Goods" off of 2004's "All Day" EP. New songs were interspersed throughout the set, keeping energy high but still satisfying old fans with favorites such as "Ha Ha," "Whiner's Bio" and, naturally, their endearing glances of admiration towards each other.
In between songs, Gardner and Hammel, despite a hoarse voice on Gardner's part, made witty quips between themselves and with the general audience. The two reassured the audience that BIB, the acronym for new album "Bring It Back," was entirely accidental, and had nothing whatsoever to do with their young daughter Magnolia. The show climaxed at "Fluke," sending the audience into a high-energy dance fest, the perfect prelude to their new ballad "Like U Crazy," where the crowd swooned over the googly-eyed lovers. The duo closed their act with "An Experiment," ending on a note of lovely nostalgia.
Mates of State is one musical act that definitely deserves an encore. When they returned after playing their last song, Gardner asked the audience for a show of hands on their preference of either David Bowie or Nico. Both artists won out, as the duo first performed their cover of "Starman" and then performed an elegant cover of Nico's "These Days."
Sans a handful of overly zealous audience members, whom Gardner invited to dance onstage with the intention of sparing the rest of the audience, the show was most commendable and left everyone wanting to dance, fall in love or perhaps even both.
