For the second night in a row, we found ourselves hiking up Potrero Hill towards Farley’s coffee shop. They weren’t playing King Diamond this time though.
Back at the club, we ran into Wayne and Astrid and joked around a bit until the siren call of the merch table drew me back into the bowels of the club. I ogled the big red Murder By Death thermal underwear (complete with butt flap), but ended up not buying a pair. I did end up picking up merchandise from each of the three bands, and even bought a Murder By Death shirt because their tour van lost a wheel on the way up from Southern California, causing them financial strain and a good deal of delay, not to mention a speeding ticket while they were making up for lost time. Add this to the fact that their horn player wasn’t present for this gig because he had “eye herpes” (probably pink eye, I’m guessing), and it was obvious that they’d had a bad day. Sad stories always make me buy extra merchandise. Actually, I usually don’t even have to hear a sad story. However you want to look at it, I now have a brand new Murder By Death shirt, as well as a bunch of new music to listen to.
I hadn’t previously heard the first two bands, both of whom are touring with Murder By Death. Sure, I did do a quick Myspace listen before heading out to the show, but only enough to make me excited about seeing them play.
First up were Damion Suomi and the Minor Prophets, who stormed into their set with the charisma and confidence of headliners. Damion Suomi was center stage, whipping around his acoustic guitar with reckless abandon and singing like he didn’t know how to stop. Other instrumentation included banjo, drums (incuding what looking like a large marching drum perched vertically on top of some equipment behind the band), trumpet, and mandolin. Wayne mentioned that he thought they sounded a bit like a less punk version of Dropkick Murphies – the kind of stuff you might hear in a rough bar in Ireland as a soundtrack to a brawl. The music definitely had a working class Irish or Scottish folk feel to it – celebratory music for the end of a long day laboring for little pay. Suomi reminded me a bit of Mark Growden, although Growden’s main instrument is the banjo and Suomi’s the acoustic guitar. There was a banjo present though, so the comparison stands. The first song featured some beautiful harmony vocals and a ton of attitude, and the attitude continued through the rest of the set, making it a fun ride indeed. The band poured out so much energy that it infected the audience and got everybody moving and screaming, and I’m sure audience members near the stage got rained on by sweat.
The Builders and the Butchers were going to have to be pretty damn good to beat Damion Suomi’s set, and as it turns out, they were really good, but not quite as good as Mr. Suomi and his Minor Prophets. They were similar in that there was a lot of frenetic acoustic guitar playing, and music that kicked the collective audience in its pants, and different in that there wasn’t an obvious nod to old world folk music. They were at their best when two members simultaneously pounded away on various percussion instruments, giving the songs a feel of barely restrained chaos, like a pipe about to burst or the final tick of a time bomb. One of the drummers also played the keyboards, and that was also pretty damn good. If I were to attempt to label the music, I’d have to go with the lazy tag of “Americana” or “folk rock”. Both bands are coming back to the area in a couple of months, so get out and see them instead of spending yet another boring evening on the couch. I can almost guarantee that you’ll find parts of your body moving of their own accord.
After a short wait, Murder By Death, who almost didn’t make this show due to the above mentioned van troubles, arrived on stage. For this show, they were a four piece, featuring Adam Turla on guitar and vocals, Matt Armstrong on bass, Sarah Balliet on cello, and Dagan Thogerson on drums. Turla’s voice sounds even better live than it does on the recordings, a velvety croon that reminded me at times of Johnny Cash and Nick Cave, but without seeming derivative in any way. Their songs could be classified as folk rock – there is a definite southwestern americana feel to the music, and much of the lyrics seem to revolve around drinking, edged weapons, driving (not necessarily while drinking), and hard living in open places, not to mention love gone bad. Balliet’s cello playing was magnificent. She managed to draw sounds of her instrument that made me think there was a hidden horn section somewhere off stage, sounding sometimes like a saxophone or a bass clarinet. Really though, the whole band rocked through and amazing set that both fed and was fed by the audience. The sold out crowd was really into it, with people singing along and carrying on in all sorts of ways. I was afraid the really tall guy in front of me was going to fall over and squash me, so off-balance was his dancing. As for the band, they were more than pleased at such a good reception after a long day of traveling trials and tribulations.
They have definitely built up a following around here. Apparently, lots of other shows on the tour have been selling out too. At one point, Turla mentioned that this was much better than playing to nobody, which they’d done for the first 300 or 400 shows of their career. He estimated the current number of shows under their belt to be at around the 1200 mark.
Songs played included Kentucky Bourbon, You Don’t Miss Twice (When You’re Shaving With A Knife), Comin’ Home, ’52 Ford, Shiola (performed solo by Turla while the rest of the band took a break), Brother (somebody actually stage dived in the middle of the song), and many more. They did a two song encore, and by the time they finally quit the stage it was after 1:30. Despite the fact that I was starting to get tired, I felt like I could have stayed where I was for a much longer set.
If you are feeling generous and want to help them pay for van repairs and rental costs, hop over to their website and buy yourself a little something. I recommend the box set, which includes pretty much everything they’ve released in the last 10 years. I’d buy one, but then I’d have two.
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