Mates of State wrapped up a short northeastern US tour on Sunday at the Bell House in Brooklyn, in front of a sold-out crowd.  Despite not having a new album to promote, and a nearly disastrous electric organ malfunction, the husband/wife duo of Kori Gardner (keyboards/vocals) and Jason Hammel (percussion/vocals) played a crowd-pleasing hour and a half set. In addition to  songs from their entire 10-year discography, the pair mixed in a few new tunes slated for their next album, which they are currently in the process of recording.

Among the highlights was a cameo by comedian/Brooklynite-about-town Eugene Mirman. Coming out before the Mates’ encore, Mirman was greeted with the usual mix of cheers from fans and who-the-heck-is-this heckling from others. After threatening to play an array of Jethro Tull songs on Gardner’s keyboard, Mirman remained on stage for the duration of the encore, and “played” the drums on a cover of Tom Waits’ “Took the Long Road Home.”  As is usual with Mirman in such appearances, he trod the fine line between entertaining and ruinous intrusion.

Mates of State, however, sounded great. Their harmonies were working, they had the crowd dancing, and they didn’t appear to have lost any vitality after a decade-long career that’s seen five records, one wedding, and two kids. Mates of State seem to function well as a band and a couple, and in a tongue-in-cheek nod to their seemingly blissful union, they ended a particularly sweet, everything-is-magical-and-wonderful duet with a simple, harmonized coda of “Unicorns!”

The great thing about the CMJ Music Marathon is, obviously, that so many good bands come to New York every October. Of course, much of the action is centered in Manhattan’s already-crowded Lower East Side. Thankfully, every year there are more and more shows in Brooklyn, where several great new venues have popped up over the last few years. But since the LES is still where most of the action is at, a lot of the Brooklyn shows tend to be less populated. This is a normally a good thing, as it was on Wednesday night at the Bell House (10/21/2009). which is just out of the way enough in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn to be an inconvenient (and, honestly, kind of scary if you’re walking alone) trek. But once there, attendees were treated to a night of mostly-British (Empire) rock, and pretty fine rock at that.

After sets ranging from adequate to impressive by New Zealand’s Surf City, North Carolina’s The Love Language, and the UK’s Let’s Wrestle, headliners Pete and the Pirates took the stage well after midnight in front of a moderately-sized but extremely enthusiastic crowd.  While Pete and the Pirates play mostly upbeat, brit-rock , singer/guitarist Tommy Sanders conveys a sort of melancholy onstage – both in his lyrics and his general demeanor – that keeps the whole affair from becoming too sweet. If the members of Interpol were slightly happier, or less pretentious, they might well sound like Pete and the Pirates.

The band tore through most of their one album, Little Death, as well as a few new songs slated for album #2.  While Little Death is a pretty nice record, performed live, the songs have just a little more kick, which is all you can really ask for out of a live show. There were many heads a-bobbin’. It should also be mentioned that despite the obvious talents of Sanders and guitarist Peter Hefferan, at times it seems like bassist Peter Cattermoul holds the whole thing together: not only does he play great bass-lines under fairly simple melodies, but he has some great rock and roll moves to match.

While the tunes of Pete and the Pirates are quite impressive overall, their song “Mr. Understanding” is a truly transcendent piece of music. It’s easily one of the best songs of the last two years, and is a nearly-perfect rock song: a simple yet insanely catchy guitar line, great harmonies, and a driving, steady beat build up a melodic tension that never fully pays off, which makes you want to hear the song over and over and over.  That song alone was worth the price of admission… and the trip to Middle of Nowhere, Brooklyn, NY.