Mo Dotti played perhaps their best set ever (of those I've seen) during Pretty But Wicked's recent night at the Zebulon. It was, as they describe on their website, noise pop (or others call shoe gaze) heaven. The band was opening for Host Family. Let's flash forward to the end of the set and their song "for anyone and you." Lead singer Gina Negrini went reaching for the tambourines. That got her band questioning her as she was supposed to play guitar. She responded saying that it would take too long to tune the guitar and she didn't want to impose on Host Family's time. I thought that was such a thoughtful gesture. That didn't stop the band from playing those guitar riffs that give the song such notable power. It also did not go unnoticed that Negrini took off her glasses for the song.
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| Mo Dotti at Zebulon |
Playing guitar for Mo Dotti was Negrini's sister Sophie Negrini who fronts the rather awesome band called Janelane. The duo are a talented pair. Time to go down memory lane a bit here. I first came across Janelane at the 2017 Echo Park Rising festival. (If you look carefully, you can find a photo I took for Buzzbands here.) A year later, I ran across Mo Dotti at The Satellite (a venue that didn't make it through 2020). I don't know how long it took, but a handful of years later I realized they were sisters. I just figured they were all part of a group of friends.
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| Mo Dotti at Zebulon |
I was supposed to cover Mo Dotti for Buzzbands in 2021 at Viva! Pomona, but unfortunately they had to drop out due to Covid-19 reasons. My interactions with the band and Buzzbands continued into 2022 when they played a set at a Buzzbands' sponsored Harvard & Stone night. That ranks as one of the more memorable moments of 2022. The band had just started up their set when the electricity went out at the venue. I could say that the band blew out the circuit breakers, but that wouldn't be true. I was told that something got tangled up in the overhead electrical street wires and caused the electricity to go out on the block. (Tremours was supposed to close out the night, but that didn't occur.)
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| Mo Dotti at Zebulon |
Back to the Zebulon set. The band's opus "dead to me" (and closing track off the band's 2024 album release opaque) clocks in at nearly 7 minutes and had the closely packed crowd doing head nods throughout. The lyrics are a stream of consciousness:
when it’s tough do you have enough? and do you know what you really want? do you love yourself? or life itself? the feeling’s not incredible
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| Mo Dotti at Zebulon |
With the band playing a few random notes to open the song, Negrini was on her knees tuning her guitar and getting the pedals set. When back on her feet, she rolled in a back and forth manner until approaching the microphone to sing. Like the crowd, the band took the opportunity of the atmospheric noise pop tune to sway along with their music creation.
Setlist: pale blue afternoon, dead to me, whirling sad, wave goodbye, Starflower, Nausicaa, lucky boy, for anyone and you.
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