Bern and the Brights 5/8
Sometimes you walk into a room and you aren’t quite sure that you belong there...but as soon as the music starts to play, you realize that you are exactly where you need to be. Bern and the Brights always make me feel like I’m right at home when their music is in my ears. It doesn’t matter who I’m with or what the scene around me is. A gaggle of Jersey Audible peeps (read: Girl Gang...that’s right, Jersey Audible has it’s own girl gang) got together on May 8th to head over to Rent Party in Maplewood just to see Bern and the Brights do their thing.
Before we showed up, we weren’t even really sure what Rent Party was. All we knew was that we were really into Bern and the Brights when they played their show at Flemington DIY and we wanted to see them again. As it turns out, Rent Party is a pretty fantastic organization that does a lot of charity work. Being able to donate our time and money to feed hungry kids will make anyone feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The drinks and really good music are an added bonus.
We walked in the door about 5 minutes before Bern and the Brights took the stage and wow’d everyone in the room with their amazing music. The unique duo, made up of Bernadette Malavarca (who puts the Bern in ‘Bern and the Brights’) and Catherine McGowan, usually plays guitars with prerecorded beats playing in the background but at one point during their set at Rent Party, Bernadette jumped behind the drum kit and started showing off her skills. The ladies are always down to make people dance and their voices make my heart melt.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been so into a local band that I’ll follow them around wherever they play, but my girls and I are officially Bern and the Brights groupies. It’s going to be awhile before they play any more local shows because they’re recording material for a new album (Hooray!), but as soon as they start working their way around the state again, we’ll be right up front moving to their beats.
8/6 - Grape Room, Philadelphia, PA
8/8 - Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
8/9 - Henrietta Hudson, NY
