Mothers - Live @ The Lexington 26/02/2016

I can only imagine that, as a band, when it comes to putting together a record and then finally releasing it, it can be only compared to when a parent says goodbye to their child when they move out for the first time. You spend years nurturing it into something, until it deemed acceptable for the adult world and then you let it go on its way.

This is how I can imagine Mothers felt when the launch of their debut album, 'When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired' came around at The Lexington late this February.



The Athens, Georgia-based band walk on stage to a packed out room. You can feel that the band have been eager to get this record out, and they smash into foot stomping 'Copper Mines' as their opening song. A track that is featured on 'When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired', it is a perfect introduction to the record, a mixture of emotions and tempos that quickly get you engrossed with the band.

Their set is filled with tracks from the new record, songs like 'Lockjaw', 'Too Small For Eyes' and 'Hold Your Own Hand' make the set list. Someone shouts out "BASEBALL" between one pair of songs, of which Mothers' lead singer, Kristine Leschper stops in her tracks and politely replies back “Later...”. It goes to show that despite there is a new record to play, they will still go back to the music that first made people fall in love with them.

 Finishing their Howling Bells-esque set with crowd favourite 'No Crying in Baseball', and they are so in the moment with playing with each other that they forget to tell us it is their last song. But Kristine repays us by coming back on alone to play to us with just her guitar and beautiful voice, reminding us why we love Mothers. And like all things we love, they hit us when we least expect it, and just like their record their live set blows you away.

Words & Photos of Ant Adams