The Evens: Ian Mackaye in 2005

Barely a mile away from my house, Ian Mackaye's new combo The Evens played last night at Terman Middle School in Palo Alto. It turns out Ian actually attended the school for 7th grade while his dad was on fellowship at Stanford, his only foray outside of the DC area as a kid. So he told a lot of funny stories like about how he attended his first dance right in that auditorium.

The Evens are just Ian on vocals and Danoelectric guitar, and Amy Farina on vocals and drums, therefore immediately reminiscent of similarly instrumented combos like k bands Kicking Giant or Lois, or the Portland band The Spinanes.

They played at audience level, just in front of the stage (stage diving was definitely out unless you wanted to land on the band), with a pretty simple setup, and a bunch of folding chairs around for the 50-75 that attended. Ian immediately made everybody feel at ease by talking to audience members and coaxing interaction by having people whistle or sing along. Apparently his dad was in the audience too, but I couldn't pick him out.

Since they don't have a CD out yet, I had never heard any of their songs before. In fact, I've been pretty much unfamiliar with any of Mackaye's work after the first Fugazi or two. While the Evens are hardly hardcore, or post hardcore in their approach, it's chock full of Ian's personal politics in it, his former rage tempered, it's sorta sit down emo for everyone, and it's great.