The chance to see a classic album performed in its entirety is always exciting, especially when the proposed masterpiece is Mission of Burma’s Signals, Calls, and Marches. The 1981 EP is still the band’s most perfect marriage of fuzzy guitar attacks and consistently hummable hooks. On Friday, at Philadelphia’s First Unitarian Church, the graying, snarling members of Burma barreled through Signals and other ancient material. While the show had moments that matched the album’s adrenaline-fueled greatness, there were plenty of lulls as well, with the crowd uncomfortably waiting for a reason to explode. Something felt lost in translation.
Part of the problem, ironically, was the intensity of the band’s guitar riffs. Roger Miller’s post-punk hooks were deafening on Friday night, pummeling the audience for over an hour. This would not have been a problem if the guitar didn’t drone out every other aspect of the band. Signals, Calls, and Marches holds up so well because of its short, sweet flashes of pop radiance, but on Friday night the band’s precise vocal patterns were kept hidden under a sloppy heap of power chords.
There were times when Mission of Burma graced the heights of their material; “That’s when I Reach for My Revolver” was mind-blowing, but really, how could it not be? “This is Not a Photograph,” meanwhile, inspired a sizable mosh pit in the closely-knit trenches of the Church. Miller, bassist Clint Conley, and drummer Peter Prescott should also be applauded for their high-wire energy throughout the night, which helped to keep the show chugging along. It may have been too ambitious to expect any subtlety from their performance on Friday night, but the album felt incomplete in a live format without its tracks’ nuanced structures. Even Mission of Burma can sound too raw sometimes.
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