At the Showbox at the Market on Friday night, Carissa’s Wierd didn’t come back to life so much as appear like a ghost summoned to a séance. Principal, founding band members and co-singer/songwriters Mat Brooke and Jen Ghetto took the stage dressed up in black as if attending a funeral. Without a word, the seven-years dormant band launched into the glacially moving “Low Budget Slow Motion Soundtrack Song for the Leaving Scene” (about as self-explanatory a title for what they do as possible), Brooke and Ghetto harmonizing in whisper: “Absence only made our hearts grow colder/I will be waiting/I’ll just keep waiting for you.” The applause from the packed crowd (and, during the band’s quiet songs, the awed silence) made clear that those who’d been waiting for this reunion had lost no warm feelings for the band over the years. When the audience wasn’t keeping quiet during the songs or cheering wildly between them, you could just occasionally make out someone reverently singing along under their breath.
