The crowd at Cozmic Pizza waited patiently for Mirah and Led to Sea to wrap up an extensive sound check at its show on Tuesday night. The five-piece ensemble making up Mirah’s band are perfectionists. Mirah steps off of the stage to hear the speaker’s projection, stands amongst the eager listeners and decides, “just a hair more of guitar.” Meanwhile, one of her band mates is going back and forth with the sound guy about the microphone levels. Its sound check alone was interesting to watch insofar as it projected a raw feel as you would watch them stop during songs to work through timing, entrances and tempo. It felt as though we were offered a direct insight on the running of its practices. And before leaving the stage, Mirah comedically asks, “You guys know this is a sound check, right?”
With that, Led to Sea, the endearing solo act violinist/violist Alex Guy, takes the stage to open the show. She plays through her entire set with her viola, utilizing the deep chords to complement her alto range vocals. The pizzicato of her G-string resonates as she sings, “When you told me not to worry / I worried anyway,” a line from a poem written by her friend, a fellow Seattleite. Guy’s soft, staccato-like singing often mirrored sounds produced by her instrument. Yet, this in no way means that she was merely trapped in a similar sounding muddle throughout her performance. Rather, her viola worked as her sidekick. You never knew when her bow would come up or down, at times bursting into long-bowed, passionate strides later fed back to listeners by her looping of them.
Led to Sea’s classical essence allowed an effortless transition between acts. It was immediately clear Mirah’s extensive sound check paid off, exemplified by the musicians’ synchronization. Mirah’s moxie added a comedic dimension to the show that the crowd appreciated. She would often humor us between songs with witty one-liners like, “So we did leave the mosh pit area open,” referring to the space in front of the stage. The drums, guitar, violin, keys and vocals quickly revealed the humor behind the latter statement as they created a rich, elegant sound, similar to that of the opener.
About midway through its set list, Mirah throws on a black ball cap that was apparently picked up at a gas station in Eugene. This costume alteration, as if strategically planned, signified a change in mood. Despite there being no moshing, the band pushed its predominantly classical sound to the wayside at times and revealed its louder, indie rock side as the drummer would pulse a “a-rik-a-tik-a-rik-a-tik” repeatedly, like nails steadily tapping on a table.
Being perfectly honest, the show as a whole left me with a longing for orchestral music, which I think goes to say, both acts possess an aged quality to them. This quality is obviously attributed to its instrumental abilities, but also to its overall sound. Cozmic Pizza enjoyed a dovetailing of performances by Led to Sea and Mirah, whom are now, I’m sure, on the radars of many individuals.