It’s a rare treat to see a band’s CD release in their home town. Especially when their home town is the tiny, close-knit community of Port Townsend. And especially when the band members are New Faces celebrating the debut of their first album Two Years, and all their high school friends are spilling out of what is probably the only all-ages venue west of the Sound, the Boiler Room.
The most striking aspect of New Faces’ release last weekend was the camaraderie between Connor Sisk, Nico Janssen and Kyle Hove and their rowdy crowd. The stage was almost non-existent, marked off by tape in the roughly 400-square-foot space, and the crowd’s disdain for false borders was clear; they jumped around the band, hopped up onto the base drum, and generally caused mayhem. The band mingled as well. Toward the end of the set, Hove ran into the sea of bodies to play and Janssen turned his mic around and stood in the crowd facing a lone Sisk, who did not disappoint with his frenetic yet perfectly timed drumming.
New Faces have received a lot of hype because of their age; they’re in high school (or were, Janssen recently graduated). But it’s unfair to say that their talent is disproportionate to their youth, as though that were the only interesting thing about them. In reality, their triumph at EMP Sound Off and subsequent signing to Loveless Records is largely due to the emotional dichotomy of their songs, which beckon the listener in and keep them at a distance simultaneously. The Brit-pop luster of their upbeat tunes (brightened just a little bit more by well-paced hand-clapping) is tarnished by enigmatic lyrics about cracks in ice, guilt, cruelty and a certain mysterious figure called Ms. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. They admit to finding inspiration in Bowie, and his notoriously upbeat but still brooding presence lurks in the background of their songs. Consequently, they straddle emo and pop and create a musical/lyrical contrast that threatens to crack but never does, keeping you hooked and curious the whole time. This contrast is heightened live, with the entertainment factor pumped way up but lyrics as elusive as ever.
Of course, playing in a small town surrounded by peers they’ve grown up with can’t be all fun and games. After the show Janssen admitted “It’s hard to play here, when so many of the people in my lyrics are standing right in front of me.” But the crowd didn’t seem to mind a bit, and lauded the success of their friends-turned-celebrities.