Tonight's show is a celebration of the release of Hana's new album, and features an eclectic mix of music, including Roderick Romero's post-Sky Cries Mary outfit, No Futuro, as well as topnotch DJ Miss Kick. They both run their own record labels, book their own tours, and have consistently stayed off the shallow scenester radar by choice. The popularity of these two European synth-pop bands might be lost on Americans who would view a resurrection of the genre akin to bringing back '80s hair metal as an act of nostalgia best performed with plenty of sarcasm. And that's probably why Covenant's U.S. audience mostly comes from the industrial-gothic fringe, where the subculture eagerly embraces the band's brooding lyrics and ominous electronics. It can be difficult for a well-schooled musician to keep a steady following.
Training often pushes people to tinker and meddle and change, often to the confusion of their fans.
Whereas Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day will probably never go searching for that fourth chord, and Bob Dylan will always be content to grunt out his lyrics like it was still 1969, Berkeley-trained drummer Scott Amendola will never be so still. He found his fame as a poster child of San Francisco jazz-funk with Charlie Hunter, but since those days he's gone every way from folksy to worldly to poppy, and his own debut album is similarly eclectic. This all-ages Murder City Devils show at Graceland should be sufficiently exciting for those seeking the Stoogey kind of good time that makes Murder City Devils one of Seattle's most beloved bands. There's this one scene where Theodore, feeling isolated but remaining composed after being laughed at by thugs for his sultry walk and glammy attire, passes by a wall, suggestively spot-lit, charismatic in his defiant composure. It has always been the tendency of old men to become more unabashed, unapologetic, and even obstreperous the older they get.