Seattle post-rock trio Lena Lou were one of the three performers at the Guitarpalooza event at Fuel Sports on June 18th. The evening also featured music from local group Late Septemer Dogs and headliner & Grammy-award winning guitarist Larry Mitchell.

Led by songwriter/guitarist Tasha Spizelli and featuring new members Brian Joyce on drums and Daniel McManus on bass, Lena Lou opened proceedings with a high-octane set. Showing off numbers from their debut The Live EP, the intimate setting of Fuel Sports played right into the band's strengths; mellow, introspective passages rubbed shoulders with raging, aggressive movements, all within the same songs.

The fluid and instrumental nature of the songs made it difficult to discern individual songs as they were being performed. It was hard to argue with the musicianship and actual playing, though; Joyce was a rock behind his kit, McManus might well be the snazziest bass player in the world, and Spizelli - aided in no small part by the Mike Soldano SLO-100 amp - was the guiding force of the music, embodying every nuance and subtlety in Lena Lou's diverse and myriad sound.

It was only a short set - such is the lot of the opening act - but the band pulled out every trick it had, including Spizelli cranking the controls on her pedals mid-performance, making her Ibanez 7-string sound more like a science fiction weapon than a musical instrument. Listen to "La Fiesta" on The Live EP; it's not that inaccurate a comparison.

All the attention that evening was on Larry Mitchell, and Late September Dogs, with three releases under their belt, were the more established band, but Lena Lou certainly won a few converts over with their energetic, pulsing set. Seattle's not the first place that comes to mind when you think of a progressive instrumental post-rock band - led by a self-taught 19 year old woman who plays her 7-string the way a 7-string guitar was meant to be played - but Lena Lou bring something very new and different to the table. Here's hoping for more in the near future.