Mr. Gnome w/Fancytramp & Linear Downfall: at Exit/In (Nashville, TN) Sat. December 8, 2012

Mr. Gnome w/Fancytramp & Linear Downfall

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

By and large, the two-piece-rock-outfit template has secured a pretty comfortable place in the modern zeitgeist. And while that’s fine — I mostly have no complaints regarding, say, Flat Duo Jets or The White Stripes or The Black Keys — for all their rusty, over-the-top blues-stomp, they sometimes lack density, diversity and power. Only sometimes, but still. Sometimes. Fellow Rust Belt duo Mr. Gnome, however, seldom seems to suffer from that problem on their latest, Madness in Miniature. Songs like the sprawling, six-minute “House of Circles” flip the switch from ambient and dreamy to unforgiving and riff-fueled, landing somewhere between the mathy post-rock of Battles and the psychedelic hard rock of Queens of the Stone Age. Frontwoman Nicole Barille drops mile-thick slabs of distorted and pitch-shifted guitar, her vocals dynamic and emotive, while drummer Sam Meister blasts his way through complex, thoroughly engaging beats that, to be perfectly honest, you’re just never going to hear from any of the aforementioned Rust Belt duos. Seriously though, there are only two of them, and they aren’t samey, thin or predictable. What gives, Mr. Gnome? Locals Fancytramp and Linear Downfall open.

—D. PATRICK RODGERS