Mazarin - the new american apathy, 2005

"Mazarin doesn't live in Chapel Hill, but they might as well - they've played here three times in as many months, and despite how enamored I am of We're Already There, I've managed to miss them every time until this show. I did catch their final song when they opened for the Walkmen at the Cat's Cradle a few months earlier, and I retained exactly one impression - for a pop band, they were defiantly loud, aspiring to My Bloody Valentine decibel-levels. Opening for Rogue Wave, they were quieter and fit well with the headliner; each blending sunny pop-rock and fuzzy melancholy, with Mazarin tilting more toward the former and Rogue Wave, the latter. The bands were almost too well-matched: When I walked in to the opening verse of "For Energy Infinite", it took me a minute to figure out which band it was even though I'm intimately familiar with the song."