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All Them Witches Live Footage of “Mountain” Posted

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 12th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

This video came down no PR wire. It’s not a premiere. It’s not exclusive. It’s been up for about a week. Basically I saw Nashville four-piece All Them Witches had posted the link on their Thee Facebooks page and after watching the whole thing, I felt compelled to post it as well. The track is “Mountain,” which is the meditative closer of their 2013 full-length, Lightning at the Door (discussed here), and the clip was filmed live at Chicago’s Cobra Lounge. I think the date was Feb. 5, since that seems to be the last time I can find they were there. Pretty recent, anyway, and with solid sound quality, though what strikes more than that is how well the mood of the song is conveyed live.

I haven’t had occasion to see All Them Witches on stage yet, but having enjoyed the crap out of Lightning at the Door and the preceding Our Mother Electricity (review here), I hope to. The band — bassist/vocalist Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod, drummer Rob Staebler and keyboardist Allan Van Cleave — offer a dead-on look at their stage dynamic in the video, Staebler holding a tension in the drums that grounds the song even as Parks, McLeod and Van Cleave seem to be their most spaced out. Their blend of blues and heavy psych-derived jamming comes through clearly, and though it seems early on like the wheels might come off, they keep it together to get a fervent round of hooting from the crowd at the end. Well earned.

If you dig this, All Them Witches have vinyl on the way for Lightning at the Door from whence it comes. They also recently issued a live recording digitally through Daytrotter, though I can’t vouch for it since I couldn’t figure out how to make the download work. That won’t be the last concert document to come from them, however, since their show March 7 at The Garage in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was also taped and filmed for a live release. Will be interested to see how that turns out, but in the meantime, I thought this might fit well at the end of a long day:

All Them Witches, “Mountain” Live at Cobra Lounge, Chicago, IL

All Them Witches on Thee Facebooks

All Them Witches on Bandcamp

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