Wino Wednesday: Saint Vitus, “Let Them Fall” Live in Cambridge, Oct. 2013
I’ve had my eye out for footage from the latest Saint Vitus East Coast tour more or less since it started, and some has started to surface. The tour ran for three weeks, 21 days exactly, from Oct. 4 to Oct. 25, and along with support from Pallbearer and The Hookers and Gozu, Vitus hit the Middle East in Cambridge on Oct. 15. It was an early show, and a fantastic show (review here), and I felt fortunate to see all the bands, but especially Saint Vitus again, since they’re a group who just a few years ago I never imagined I would hear play live. And with as tight as vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich, guitarist Dave Chandler, bassist Mark Adams and drummer Henry Vasquez have gotten over the last couple years and as smoothly as the newer songs from 2012’s Lillie: F-65 (review here) have been integrated with the many classics from the Vitus catalog, it was all the more a pleasure to witness.
Among the cuts that most easily meshed with Vitus‘ legacy material was the single “Let Them Fall.” Shorter than some of the others on Lillie: F-65 and stripped down to its bare structural essentials in the tradition of “Born too Late” or “I Bleed Black,” it made for a perfect single to the album, which came across likewise as a continuation of the spirit of Saint Vitus at their Wino-fronted grittiest. A strong hook, a harsh lyrical righteousness, a slow plod and that tonal “voom” that nobody since Chandler has been able to make come from an amplifier in quite the same way — “Let Them Fall” had everything most essential about 21st century Saint Vitus. It was also the band’s first-ever video, which Chandler mentioned on stage at the Middle East, giving a special fuck-off to the “internet critics” who didn’t get the message of the clip in the process. Hardly a group of people who need to be taken down a peg, but fair enough.
The back of my silly big head is front and center for that rant and the rest of the video below, but other than that, it makes a great addition to Wino Wednesday and I hope that more from this tour begins to show up. Until then, enjoy:
