A night to lose yourself to stoner rock jams in the musky atmosphere of the Green Door Store, American three piece Dead Meadow are the headliners. In 1998, singer and guitarist Jason Simon, bassist Steve Kille, and drummer Mark Laughlin met in a thriving DC punk/indie scene, and decided to coalesce their love of 60s psychedelia and early 70s hard rock in the form of Dead Meadow. Nine albums later, the band have gained a mighty reputation and an enthralling live show.
Local trio Tusks have the task of building a suitable mood – and their psychedelic grunge certainly hit that nail on the head. Having released three awesome tracks on their Soundcloud, I was very excited to see how it comes across live. Their loose jams felt heavy and forced everyone to be under control of their riffs – and just when you thought a song was coming to its end, it comes back [at you] like you were willing it to. Howling sustained guitars and soul hitting bass were full of distortion and reverb, in a similar way to Tame Impala, Pond or The Smashing Pumpkins. The band have a strong likeness to Nirvana, it’s just a shame Tusks weren’t around before them.
Dead Meadow came on stage, draped in a red hue [from the lights], barely acknowledged the audience and went straight in to their heavy bluesy riffs. At the beginning it almost sounded like a happy neo-psychedelia, but as you, and they, drifted deeper into the riff, it gradually got more raunchy, raw and dark. You were helped along by some trippy visuals of bugs, clowns, and monks to slip further into the dark aurora their groove-heavy jams generate. The music progressively became looser, gaining a heavier feel, with more sustain as the guitar solos travel further into the void. It was turning into everything I want from classic rock music with a modern knowledge. The band didn’t care (on stage) about the audience, taking a brief break to pass round a bottle of whisky before continuing to build a dark riff full of distortion which I’m sure was just to mess with our heads.
This is the music Jim Morrison would have been looking in a band, where everyone drinks hard liquor to a stupor and lose themselves for an hour or so while they play. At times I thought this must have been what seeing an intimate Jimi Hendrix or Black Sabbath gig must have been like. Obviously those are two legendary bands that are in a league of their own, but the sound of an unhitched electric guitar and a wandering bass, in a completely in-sync band, provoke that same unique feeling whenever you hear one of their riffs.
Having not known about Dead Meadow till recently, this concert was a fantastic shock. I am now starting to go slowly through their catalogue starting with their truly epic eponymous titled debut, an album that I have now played blisteringly loud a stupid amount of times in the past week. I strongly advise anyone who thinks they may be into a bluesy stoner psychedelic rock to see these legends play, as you will be totally beguiled.
Iain Lauder