Karate & Ramona The Pest

The really funny thing about a gaping hole in your soul is that you won’t really notice it’s there until someone puts something in it.

I only caught the last two songs of Ramona the Pest, which sounded suspiciously like Tori Amos. Someone informed me that the three-piece I saw usually performs as a six-piece. I still say they very badly wanted to be Tori Amos and fell far short.

The Karate’s set was not unlike other Karate sets I’ve seen in the fact that its greatness could easily be lost in its understatedness. In a musicscape filled with rock revitalization, dramatic theatrics and acrobatic stage performances, Karate is none of these things. Musically the slow sprawling sound of the bass drives most of the songs, with rather minimalist guitar parts adding punctuation, along with soft-spoken lyrics. At first listen it would be easy to dismiss the music as dreary and lacking excitement. On closer examination, you may find yourself, several weeks later, standing in line at the post office, with rain still running off the top of your head, into your face, realizing that you’re missing something inside. If you’re fortunate you may realize Karate’s understated emotional simplicity fills this space quite well. The sometimes abstract lyrics leave the context of the songs open to the listener, making them more personal. Their quiet, yet passionate delivery, along with pauses and sudden changes in volume and rhythm, creates incredibly powerful emotional moments in the songs. While the structure of the songs is not the typical verse-chorus-verse, these emotional bursts, along with the simple rhythms of the bass and guitar parts, actually get stuck in your head quite easily.

The band’s performance is understated and straightforward, which is fine, as it suits the music very well. The intimate atmosphere of the Blue Room was perfect for the personal, emotional performance. Aside from that, there isn’t really much to say, except to maybe mention the band’s odd fashion sense or fondness for hats. For the most part they pretty much let the music speak for itself. It seemed like they played a short set, but that’s okay, because I’m sure they’ll be back soon.

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