Album Review: Hippie Death Cult, Live at Star Theater
This stretch of touring Hippie Death Cult undertook throughout 2023-2024 supporting their late-’23 full-length, Helichrysum (review here), may end up as formative for the band, and if that seems counterintuitive to you as they’ve been around for six-plus years, it is. It makes sense, however, if you think of Helichrysum as a born-late debut album for the trio configuration of the band, comprised of vocalist/bassist Laura Phillips, guitarist Eddie Brnabic and drummer Harry Silvers. Hippie Death Cult‘s third album overall, it was the first with Phillips handling the role of vocalist, the first with Styles, and the first without the organ sound that had been a staple of their work to that point.
It was a significant moment in the life of the band thus far, and Phillips, Brnabic and Silvers greeted it with an adapted vision of what Hippie Death Cult do. They were sludgier and rawer, with Phillips‘ propensity for shifting into a scream and shoutier delivery generally, songs like “Arise” and “Toxic Annihilator” account for that because, unlike the material from their first two records, it was written to do so. Live at Star Theater makes a whole lot of sense to release in the way live albums make sense broadly — good for fans, look good on the merch table, etc. — but for Hippie Death Cult, they’re still letting people know (or they’re letting them know again) what they’re about as a group. Whether it’s new songs or old, Live at Star Theater is a chance for listeners who haven’t seen three-piece Hippie Death Cult to find out some of what they’ve been missing. So it makes specific sense as well.
The show was recorded Nov. 9, of course at Star Theater in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, It was reportedly the last gig of the year and wrapped the already-noted busy stint that may ultimately have an impact on the development of Hippie Death Cult‘s sound — playing live a whole bunch will do that, I’m told — and they captured the full audio/video experience for posterity; one show, as it happened. It’s not this song pulled from this night and that one from that one. It’s the show, or at least part of it.
Their full set was longer, with “Squid,” “Nice to Know You,” “Better Days,” “Tomorrow’s Sky” and the Nirvana cover “Aneurysm” (posted here) closing out, but on the live album, “Arise,” “Toxic Annihilator,” “Shadows” and “Red Giant” feature from Helichrysum and they cap with a reinterpretation of the title-track to 2021’s Circle of Days (review here) that takes up 16 minutes of Live at Star Theater‘s 42-minute runtime. That ethic of fleshing the material out is there in the other songs as well, with each one longer than its studio counterpart by some measure or other. This is the way of songs with some bands — they become living things that change over time rather than setting the studio take as definitive and playing directly to that — and Hippie Death Cult‘s remaining allegiance to psychedelia resides in no small part in that flexibility.
Fret not, though, they also shred. Brnabic — who also mixed and mastered; Richard “Will” Fenton and Jeremy Romagna engineered — is no stranger to tearing up a solo or 10, and across Live at Star Theater, part of what Hippie Death Cult are showing off is the chemistry of its lineup in this form. This comes through even in the abbreviated, mostly-new set as appears on the LP, as the gallop of “Toxic Annihilator” comes in on precise stops picking up from the noisy nod that has people cheering before “Arise” is actually even done, Phillips between songs advising those who don’t want to be part of the mosh to stand aside. Fair enough.
But “Toxic Annihilator,” as taut as it is in comparison to a song like “Circle of Days,” opens up as well, during its later solo section, and alongside everything else Hippie Death Cult are doing with Live at Star Theater, they’re changing the character of their material — or at least showing how that change took shape over the course of 2024 leading to these songs, on this night, during this set — as part of their ongoing evolution. “Shadows” wasn’t as much of a standout from Helichrysum as either “Arise” or “Toxic Annihilator,” but it makes a rousing centerpiece for the live record, with a bassier push bringing Phillips‘ role at the forefront of the trio into focus as Brnabic offsets with bluesy shred and Silvers sets it to the swing with which he would seem to have been born.
“Shadows” brings a different mood than the opening duo, and the cymbal wash build into “Red Giant,” with its stops and twists, feels no less purposeful for the obvious edit before it starts. Live at Star Theater isn’t a complete live picture of Hippie Death Cult circa late last year, but in addition to the archival appeal of capturing this band at this moment in their collective history, it’s a thrilling showcase for the nastier side that has emerged in their sound, “Red Giant” playing host to a particularly vicious scream from Phillips, who then leads the band through the smoother nod that makes up most of “Circle of Days,” though I’ll note that when they get to the gallop there as well, everybody sounds relieved.
Sometimes a band ends up in a different place than they started, and with Hippie Death Cult reveling in the sludged and abrasive aspects of their sound as they do across Live at Star Theater, they have a charge to them that one wouldn’t have predicted would come to focus from their earliest work. At the same time, the subversion of expectations continues to suit the trio, and the end result of all the touring they put in for Helichrysum, as one might hear it on this live offering, is in the dynamic manner in which they bring their songs to life. I don’t know where Hippie Death Cult are going to end up sound-wise three records from now, but the path they’re on is exciting and Live at Star Theater showcases part of the reason why.
Hippie Death Cult, “Red Giant” live at Star Theater
Hippie Death Cult on Instagram
Hippie Death Cult on Soundcloud
Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp
Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram
Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook
Tags: Heavy Psych Sounds, Hippie Death Cult, Hippie Death Cult Live at Star Theatre, Live at Star Theatre, Oregon, Portland
