It was her birthday and Warpaint was turning seven. She had circled the date on the refrigerator calendar hoping her mother would see the red mark and wonder, then remember. But the day ended with nothing but the leftover hors d’oeuvres her mother had re-heated for lunch. Unable to sleep, Warpaint wandered down the path behind her house into the woods. She had never visited the graveyard at night, but she had always found solace in the company of headstones. Leaning against the white marble, she started to cry, and as the tears fell, ghosts began to seep out of the frostbitten ground around her.
One ghost glides towards Warpaint in “Billie Holiday,” looking like a campy Hollywood depiction of an other-worldly specter. The acoustic guitar rolls at a tense tempo as Warpaint is startled by the looming wispy-haired soul. But the harmonies are benign, and the apparition’s voice resonates with restful gentleness. The woman’s gray image grows sharper with the addition of percussion, and Warpaint can eventually discern her words: lyrics aching to reunite with her still breathing lover.
Warpaint pressed her cheek against a carved epitaph and peered at one phantom that stood out from the swarm of languid spirits. Among a tangle of lucid whites, the spirit was black – even blacker than the night air. The shadowy blotch zipped across the cemetery as if fast-forwarded by a demonic device.
This vengeful ghost stalks the November night in “Elephants” to haunt her husband’s new wife. Repetitive guitar lines prickle with resentment, as the ghost exhales sorrowful yet deranged threats – “I’ll break your heart / To keep you far from where / All dangers start.” Enraged, her sighs morph into raw screeches accompanied by violent cymbal and guitar, ultimately frightening Warpaint to return home.
She hurried to her mother’s side. It had been months since her mother acknowledged her at all. But truly disturbed, Warpaint threw off her mother’s blankets in urgent need of comfort. The mother awoke, looked into Warpaint’s pupil-less eyes and screamed a chilling pitch. Confused, Warpaint searched the windowpane for her reflection, but there was none.
Hear the four-piece, all-female band at Great Scott on Sunday, August 15th.