Chemistry, despite what beer commercials and romantic comedies might tell you, often takes time to develop. The longer certain elements stew, the more they blend, becoming parts of a whole instead of carrots, peas and beef stock.
When you’re talking music, it’s instantly clear when a band jells and when it does not. Quality songwriting and performance chops mean little when the members lack a wordless musical shorthand, right?
That’s no problem for We Are! We Are!
The effusively named Denver instrumental trio burns with unmistakable chemistry, each member filling his role in a way that seems preordained.
The band — guitarist Sam Catlett-Sirchio, bassist Jim Sutton and drummer Sam Gault — will release its remarkably mature self-titled debut EP at the Larimer Lounge tonight. Its members are so intertwined they even moved across the country together to continue their musical project.
“These days we have an unstated idea of what we sound like,” Catlett-Sirchio said, toying with the aluminum tab of his beer can in the Capitol Hill apartment he shares with Sutton. “But even after only three or four shows, we knew we were having a lot of fun.”
The members attended Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., occasionally running into one another while working in the dining hall. They discovered their creative kinship via music and a shared love of dance-worthy tunes, from early East Coast math-rock and post-rock titans to funk and classic rock.
Short-lived auditions, early projects (the awesomely named Massive Lord) and vocal experiments notwithstanding, the trio congealed around an exceedingly tight, percussive sound that incorporates indie rock, jazz, dance-punk and even reggae.
It’s nothing revolutionary in 2008, but in a town with dozens upon dozens of worthy bands, each clawing for its own slice of Denver’s musical attention, it’s shockingly unique. Like any good group, We Are! We Are! discarded countless band names and songs to get to the tight set they now feature.
They may have formed around a shared love of bands like Q and Not U, At the Drive In, the Rapture and Pinback, but their current sound — and improbably energetic live show — is all their own.
“I don’t think we’re super-aware of some sense of musical integrity,” Catlett-Sirchio said.
“We’re just trying to write more songs that sound like us,” said Sutton, whose nimble, loose-legged stage presence comes off like a miniature circus bear dodging a downed power cable.
“We also have a really limited textural range,” Catlett-Sirchio added, “and not just because of the instrumentation, but because we don’t use any effects.”
It wasn’t a conscious choice, but it pays dividends for the band, whose members moved to Denver together in 2006. Without distracting fuzz or unnecessary echo, the brilliance of unadulterated dance-rock songs like “City Lights,” or the tumbling, bizarrely melodic “Bossa Nova,” can shine through. Even the complex, ribcage-thumping “Big Chokey” trades the usual instrumental pretension for visceral thrills.
The band has lately had a lot more opportunities to hone that sound since moving to the Mile High City — a town where pretty much anyone with a guitar can get a gig, but where the best bands quickly separate themselves from the rest.
“Coming in at the level we did, we were able to get shows much more easily than we did in Asheville,” Catlett-Sirchio said, shooting Sutton a wry glance. “Although I wonder if it was easier because we moved out here from across the country . . . it almost seemed like we were a touring band.”
Fortunately, the kind of chemistry that makes We Are! We Are! one of Denver’s most promising acts has nothing to do with where they hail from.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
We Are! We Are!
Instrumental rock. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., with the Archive, Killfix, Portamento. Tonight. 9 p.m. $8. 303-291-1007 or .
