December 30th, 2009 - The Murder City Devils / Past Lives / Cold Lake @ Showbox at the Market
Ending 2009 on a boozy raucous punk rock note was exactly what the doctor ordered for this rock guy. Everyone’s favorite Seattle flip floppers, The Murder City Devils, decided to treat their home town fans to another great reunion performance last Wednesday at Showbox at the Market. Actually the supporting bill was quite strong as well including both Past Lives and a new band, one to which I had heard only good things-- Cold Lake.
I made a point to show up early to catch Cold Lake and the hype was more than justified, as the foursome exhibited some pretty sweet noisy punk rock not unlike many of the bands on Amp Rep’s 90’s roster. The band features USS Horsewhip and Police Teeth guitarist James Burns and local familiar face Corey Brewer who exhibited some serious throat shred on vocals. This was to my knowledge only Cold Lake’s third show ever, so I am very excited to see what comes from these guys in 2010. A record would be sweet, but surely plenty of shows are in order including their next one with the Akimbo guy's side project Sandrider on the 16th at the Comet.
Past Lives held down the middle slot on the night, and showed off some of the new material contained on their upcoming first full length release “Tapestry of Webs”. Past Lives is a very interesting band, one that I have found reasonably hard to wrap my head around thus far. Being that the four members are all former “Blood Brothers”, Past Lives’ sound surely incorporates some of the same characteristics including vocalist Jordan Blilie’s screamed delivery, and mostly experimental arrangements. Don’t get me wrong though, they are a very different band. Past Lives does throw a couple twists into the newer material, Blilie at times tones down his “clamp on nuts” wail, and most of the songs incorporate a much more straight ahead rock feel. With that said I’m keeping my mind open and eagerly awaiting the new record available February 23rd via Suicide Squeeze Records.
Ok, this is was the fourth Murder City Devil performance in Washington of 2009; two in January at the Showbox, the unforgettable rant performance at Sasquatch, and the year ending blazer beheld on December 30th. I think it’s safe to say the band is no longer broken up, right? They certainly don’t play shows like a band that just randomly decides to reunite. It’s probably because even though the members have other projects and possibly would rather be more successful in their other endeavors; the fact remains this particular combination of talent is something divinely special.
Having seen the band on just about every local opportunity since their Capitol Hill Block Party reunion in 2006, I can say that they just flat out put on one of the best rock shows available. When songs like “Press Gang”, and “I Drink the Wine” hit it usually results in some pretty intense crowd participation, not to mention one of this fine cities greatest frontmen Spencer Moody either diving head first into the audience, eating his microphone, or balancing on Coady Willis’ kick drum. For over an hour the Devils’ delighted and destroyed. The show ended with some very good news via keyboardist Leslie Hardy, in so many words new music by the Devils’ is on its way. I guess these random reunions have relit the spark, it’s not like us fans are complaining.
It will be great to watch Blood Brothers, i have bought tickets from
ReplyDeletehttp://ticketfront.com/event/Blood_Brothers-tickets looking forward to it.