From today’s b, the paper

Ray Bradbury’s “Rockett Summer,” a tale of ephemeral sunshine brought forth by a man-made season, lasting only moments, symbolically parallels our own recent history as a music outpost.

The beams of light shining on Baltimore’s scene scape are a result of intentional labor. Yet the musical architects of this strange dimension, like their fictional counterparts who develop a bomb that creates summer, might find it difficult to extend our season of good fortune, at least by themselves. How long will we be able to maintain this level of media visibility, and keep the sauce from thinning out? Simply put, when will summer end? When will we pump out this century’s equivalent to Collective Soul?

Recently, I have been witnessing a mutation in our electro/noise DNA that I find a tad offputting. Sometimes I cringe at the thought of what lies in store for warehouse frequenters of Baltimore 2011. But the other night, while taking in a show at The Hexagon Space, (1825 N. Charles St.), my faith was restored by local gritty shoe-gazer quartet Scary River. Front man and guitarist James Wolff, 26, led us along through a swampy dream trance with gnarled vocals and six-string dynamics assisted by guitarist Paul Hilton, 25; the two shifted between dirty and polished, with subtle interjections from keyboardist Brittney Harrison, 21, and minimal-yet-poignant thrusting drums from Matthew Fisher, 29. It all felt like it was somewhere between My Bloody Valentine and The Meat Puppets, with a dash of WIRE. Not too shabby.

Influences aside, however, there was definitely something new happening. The band synthesized all of these elements into something raw and tangible, something that tasted a lot better than the same old 36 flavors of irony more commonly associated with new Baltimore bands. “The band has only been together for a month,” stated recent Peabody composition graduate Wolff, originally of Skaneateles, in upstate New York. He has been in various other bands here, and in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he took a four-year hiatus to work at Islab studios to further his production knowledge and to pay the frightfully high rent. The band has already hit up some local hot spots such as The Ottobar and the beloved Copy Cat building, as well as SCarey Studios.

Scary River’s performance renewed my hope in the future of our fair city. At least here we see a band that is not riding a wave of trends. They are doing what they damn please, and it’s about damn time. Their sound may not be Pitch Fork-friendly yet, but that’s never really been an accurate depiction of what’s what anyhoo. Maybe the summer will never end.

You can see Scary River Aug. 31 at The Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St. Ed Schrader is host of “The Ed Schrader Show” and a member of the Wham City art collective. Contact him at ed@whamcity.com.

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