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Live Review: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Danava in New York, 09.26.14

uncle acid and the deadbeats 1 (Photo by JJ Koczan)

The tour had started two nights prior at Underground Arts in Philadelphia. The night before, they were in Boston, and it would’ve been a much shorter drive to hit that show, but it was my 10th wedding anniversary. A drive down to New York to pop into Manhattan and catch Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats with Danava at Bowery Ballroom didn’t seem unreasonable. Traffic on the way down, on the other hand, was. I still managed to get to the venue before they opened the doors to the upstairs room where the show was actually happening — I’d never seen a line inside the downstairs bar before — so though I felt like I was going to be late the whole danava 1 (Photo by JJ Koczan)time, I still managed to get a spot up in front of the stage. Doomly serendipity.

Portland, Oregon’s Danava, who are veterans of Kemado Records, were the lone openers. A double-guitar foursome, they weren’t unknown to me, having made a somewhat less than favorable impression at Roadburn in 2012. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing them, to be quite honest. I don’t even remember what it was about their Roadburn slot that had me so irked — maybe just the simple fact that they were on before Conan and the room was so crowded– but by the time their set was three songs in, it was clear I was the one with the problem and not the band, who boogied down on winding ’70s-style riffage like they were born to do it, bangs-sporting guitarist/vocalist Gregory Meleny trading riffs with Pete Hughes, also of Sons of Huns, in a flurry of shuffle and push met head-on by the bass and drums, not quite retro but definitely skipping a couple decades in its influence.

It was a sold-out show, and people came early, so Bowery Ballroom was plenty packed for Danava‘s set. danava 2 (Photo by JJ Koczan)“Shoot Straight from a Crooked Gun” and “White Nights of Murder” from their most recent album, 2011’s Hemisphere of Shadows, were both aired, but the primary impression I had of them was mostly of my own jackassery after our paths last crossed. Again, not sure what my deal was or where the distaste came from, but they were more than solid and held the fickle attention of a Friday night Manhattan crowd. For that alone they deserve some measure of credit. I guess one of these days I’ll have to go back and dig into their records, but at least I know for the next time they come through that it’s worth showing up. Lesson learned.

Old tube televisions, one or two with built-in VCRs — there was a time when these things were a premium — were spread throughout Uncle Acid‘s amp backline, and they’d flicker on and off with static as part of the UK outfit’s lightshow, otherwise minimal. Guitarist/vocalists Kevin “Uncle Acid” Starrs and Yotam Rubinger and bassist/backing vocalist Dean Millar were backlit, their faces obscured, as the lights above switched colors from red to blue to green, orange, yellow, etc., each song in the set seeming to come with its own hue. Light-up cat’s eyes were attached to uncle acid and the deadbeats 2 (Photo by JJ Koczan)cymbal stands on either side of Itamar Rubinger‘s drum kit, and they remained on for the duration, feeding into the band’s schlock horror cultistry and malevolent mystique, the crowd eating it up from the start of “Mt. Abraxas” onward.

For a band to sell out a place like Bowery Ballroom is not an inconsiderable achievement, and NYC is far from the only city on the tour to receive the band thusly, but that it’s Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ first run through the US only emphasizes the passionate response they have received. In the UK, they toured with Black Sabbath, and after a couple shows in London, they made their official live debut at Roadburn in 2013 with a slot on the Main Stage curated by Jus Oborn of Electric Wizard. Their two latest albums, 2011’s Blood Lust (review here) and 2013’s Mind Control (review here), are among the most lauded records in this half of the decade, and their influence is already being felt in a burgeoning movement of garage doom that one expects will only continue to grow. They’ve got a lot riding on their next full-length, but Uncle Acid are already a uncle acid and the deadbeats 3 (Photo by JJ Koczan)big fucking deal, and they were greeted accordingly in Manhattan, the audience roaring like something off a live record as the first recognizable strains of “I’ll Cut You Down” emanated from the stage.

I wouldn’t dare understate the power behind that song’s foreboding swing, murderous threat and otherworldly melody, but it was one highlight among several, “Crystal Spiders,” new single “Runaway Girls,” “Death’s Door,” “13 Candles” and “Mind Crawler” doling out rapturous hooks in Starrs‘ and Rubinger‘s vocals. They finished the regular set with “Withered Hand of Evil” and made an encore out of “13 Candles,” “Desert Ceremony” and the thudding “Devil’s Work,” a catchy finish but subdued in comparison to a lot of what preceded. No doubt this was by design, as was the entirety of the presentation, but the scale and realized sensibility with which Uncle Acid conjured up their demons and those of the multitudes in attendance — who almost to a head stuck through until the end — seemed to show a band rising to the occasion of the fervency they’ve induced. That is, while their ascendancy uncle acid and the deadbeats 4 (Photo by JJ Koczan)was already well underway by the time they started playing out, they’ve more than caught up with it. It would not be a surprise if on their next US tour, they play on even bigger stages.

Walking back the couple blocks to my car, it felt good to be back in New York. It had been a full year to the day since I last went to a show in Manhattan, which I think was the longest stretch I’ve had in more than a decade. I stopped into a cafeteria with some fantastic smelling Middle Eastern food and got a bottle of water for the road and then hit it, back up the FDR and toward the drunk-driver nightmare that was I-95 North heading into the weekend.

More pics after the jump. Special thanks to Jon Freeman for making this one happen and thanks to you as always for reading.

Danava

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Danava (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (Photo by JJ Koczan)

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3 Responses to “Live Review: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Danava in New York, 09.26.14”

  1. Avancy says:

    Great Show. Thanks for the pics and write-up. We both attended the same shows this week (UA in NYC and Earth in Boston)

  2. jason says:

    Just bought my fix for the Portland show. Interesting your beef with Danava—I’ve seen em now probably a dozen times and they never fail to deliver no matter how the lineup changes. But hot damn, looking forward to this show. Thanks for the write up. Cheers.

  3. Dennis says:

    Thomas Mowforth is not the drummer for Uncle Acid. It is Itamar Rubinger and has been since the beginning of 2013.

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