ICE CREAM HEADACHE

CONCERT REVIEW - Murder By Death
November 4th, 2008 * Uncle Pleasants * Louisville, KY
MP3:

Murder By Death - Spring Break 1899

J Roddy Walston and the Business - Nineteen Ought Four

The TVs behind the bar were capturing the election results, but in the long room next to the bar at Uncle Pleasants – the room with the pool tables and the small stage – the crowd was most concerned with spending their evening taking their minds away from the political hubbub.

Murder By Death is actually from the small university town of Bloomington, IN – but with the home of the Hoosiers being just a few short hours from Louisville, the band’s performance Tuesday night had the feel of a long-awaited hometown show. The 4-piece even welcomed their former fifth member, keyboard player Vincent, onto the stage and treated the bar to over 90-minutes of music spanning all of their four albums.

Murder By Death are a hard band to describe musically – an odd mix of southern swing, classic country, and folk delivered with heavy cello and a low vocal drawl that begs comparison to the ultimate in country voices, Johnny Cash. Their songs are cinematic in scope and both musically and lyrically bring to mind images of the old west.

Live, the band delivers flawlessly. The cello is up in the mix, the rhythm section is tight and the vocals are note for note. After 8 years, the band is arguably on the verge of cult status. Throughout the show, the hardcore fans of the band that made up most of the audience sang along word for word at an almost deafening volume.

The band finished their set with instrumentals from their early work and was called back to the stage to play a few tracks from their most recent CD “Red of Tooth and Claw,” ending with the same song that album closes with, the epic “Spring Break 1899.”

Opening the show Tuesday were The LadyBirds, a Louisville rock-a-billy band complete with an organ player. The quintet held their own nicely against the national acts they were on display beside.

J Roddy Walston and the Business offered one of the most rambunctious and invigorating live sets of recent memory with their take on southern-rock-meets-70s-glam. Most impressive were the background vocals coming from J Roddy’s guitarist and bass player. Without the aid of in-ear monitors, the duo were able to pull off high-pitched harmonies almost perfectly. This is a band to watch.

William Elliot Whitmore played after the loud and proud J Roddy, arming himself with only a banjo for most of the set. The crowd knew the words to Whitmore’s sad folk songs and sang along loudly. Whitmore joked that he couldn’t afford a backing band and added percussion to his minimal presentation by stomping his boots loudly on the stage to emulate a kick drum.