Mardeen/Boxer at the Wave

Collagen Rock/Independent

Vice President Activities Shawn Younis did it again, Wave as big as Tsunami (and significantly less devastating)

By Kate McKENNA (The Semantic, Volume 1, Issue 2)

Mardeen are pretty good. That’s the most intelligent thing there is to be said about this Cape Breton band. I’m not intentionally being scathing, there’s just nothing overtly exciting about this group. I first encountered them a couple years ago, living in Ottawa. Two Hours Traffic played a local dive, and Mardeen were opening. Then, I remember being repulsed - as I recall, they were a lot more jam-oriented then, and didn’t seem to have a fraction of the talent of the band they were opening for. I left halfway through the set to walk through the pouring rain and buy a soda. That said, I’m pleased to report that they’ve gotten better. If they continue to improve at the rate they have since early 2006, it would not be surprisingly if they opened for The Shins or some other equivalent in five years. Recently signed to fledgling Collagen Records, they are in the company of Two Hours Traffic, Smothered in Hugs, and The Danks.
   Reminiscent of Built to Spill or Teenage Fanclub, they encapsulate the post-Sloan/Thrush Hermit sound for which Atlantic Canada is becoming known. This is my primary criticism with Mardeen; they sound contrived. But to focus on the positive, they are a hook-laden pop band, that is occasionally reminescent of early day Weezer harmonizing - ‘A Lot To Be Loved’ could have been a Pinkerton outtake.
Their live show is almost identical to their recorded work. They were fun, they were catchy - were I to grade them, I’d give them maybe a B. Not bad. Okay. Maybe a B+ because one of the band members had a killer mustache, and it looked like they collaborated on their outfits (all plaid - nice!).
Clearly, everyone in the Wave on the 19th would disagree with me. Saying so would be an understatement actually, all fifty-to-one hundred people there seemed to have the time of their respective lives.