Before the Show: Hammer No More the Fingers

When I spoke with E. Duncan Webster for a Troika preview, bassist for Hammer No More the Fingers, my opinion of a band that I already loved soared to new heights. Completely unassuming, he epitomized "chill." He, and I assume the rest of the band, possess an unadulterated, youthful exuberance about music.

In addition to listing the obvious band names constantly considered influencers of HNMTF-the Pixies, Archers of Loaf, Superchunk, Blankface and Polvo-Webster listed his contemporaries and friends-Red Collar, I Was Totally Destroying It, etc. But this wasn't mindless name-dropping. It was earnest enthusiasm about the Triangle music scene. And it went beyond that. He told me Deerhoof is one of the band's biggest influencers at present. Here's his take on their Oct. 28 performance at the Cradle:

"Yeah, it was f-ing awesome. What I love about them is that they just get up there–I was thinking it would be a lot more visual–but it was like there’s nothing visual about it. it’s just the four of them standing up there and they just rocked. And they have really small amps and the drummer almost plays on like a little kid’s drum set, but they have so much sound coming out and like it’s just so well crafted. I don’t know, it just makes me feel warm and stuff."

Sure he sounds like a total dude, but it's that enthusiasm that is so exciting and manifests in every part of HNMTF. It's the band's original sound, one that's steeped in their favorite bands but still their own. It's Webster's bass, a bass that is perhaps better utilized than any other band (he plays guitar lines on his bass rather than writing bass lines). It's their excitement for being from the Triangle and getting to play music as part of a greater tradition. It's the energy at the end of "Fall Down, Play Dead". It's that riff in the middle of "Mushrooms," that guitar line that is so beautiful and out of place in a song about shrooms but just perfect.

So sure, I get excited every time they play, even if it's as frequently as twice a month in Durham. And I can't wait for their 10-track LP in March which Webster said is "us at our best." I know it might be overstating to say that HNMTF will save indie rock's soul (mind you, I don't mean this in the Sasha Frere-Jones sense),  but it's something that I earnestly believe.

Hammer No More the Fingers plays Sat., Nov. 8 at Broad Street Cafe.