Freelance Whales Make Big Splash at Lone CMJ Show

The bigger you get, the less running around you have to do during the CMJ Music Marathon. Last year, Freelance Whales were unsigned and untested, and the Queens quintet had no choice but to schlep its gear -- an odd collection of instruments that includes synths, a banjo and a harmonium -- all over New York City, playing four shows in as many days. This year, the band got away with just one, a quickie half-hour performance Friday night at Backstage Bar.

"It's good to be here, even if it's only a brief little foray," frontman Judah Dadone said.

If he was happy to be home, he wasn't nearly as effusive as singer, bassist and harmonium player Doris Cellar. Dressed like a 1940s librarian, Cellar beamed throughout the show, an open-bar shindig thrown by Mountain Dew's Green Label Sound, which just released the group's latest digital single, 'Enzymes.'

The Whales played that song toward the end of a set loaded with tunes from its debut album, 'Weathervanes.' The group mixes synth blips with banjo plucks and harmonium wheeze, and Friday's performance hinted at what Postal Service might have sounded like in 1890.

The band isn't exactly known for rocking out, and fans there to see headliner Neon Indian would have to wait to satisfy their dance urges, but during closer 'Generator ^ Second Floor,' Dadone played his banjo like a guitar and guided the Whales through a tune that built and built and ended in an Arcade Fire-style old-meets-New Wave rave-up.

The Whales gave it their all -- maybe because the night was young, and they had nowhere else to be.