Fort Lean Is Already a Standout at CMJ

Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThe band Fort Lean performs at Cameo Gallery.

The typical misunderstanding about the CMJ Music Marathon is that it’s a festival devoted to indie rock. In the past, maybe, that would have been fair, but in recent years it’s bent at the borders, allowing for hip-hop, electronic music, sounds from around the globe and more.

Still, growth notwithstanding, most of the bands playing this year’s iteration of the festival would fall under that heading, even if grudgingly. That includes Fort Lean, which performed at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg on Wednesday night, one of a handful of shows it’s scheduled to play this week.
But there’s nothing indie about Fort Lean, nothing small, nothing defeatist like that descriptor can often code. This is a big band playing small rooms that, especially compared with many of the acts performing this week, feels comically out of place.
With not very much under its belt besides a great self-released EP from earlier this year — still available free at its Bandcamp page — Fort Lean is already a standout. The frontman, Keenan Mitchell, has a huge, glorious voice — washed out but not sleazy, embodying hope and triumph. He’s a classic romantic, and time and again during this show, he appeared as if he might burst.
Maybe it was just his hair, though, a springy tangle of bleached curls, just this side of worrisome — it recalled rock icons of the 1980s, a bit off for Fort Lean’s sound, which at least in part suggests the ambition of 1990s Brit pop with some of the spaceyness of 1970s American rock. Those styles coalesced during this show, especially on the explosive version of “Beach Holiday.” But the high point came during “Dreams (Never Come True),” which showed just how beautiful Mr. Mitchell sounds when he’s let down.