Uncle Temple and the Graveyard

Another Friday, another blog – and another attempt to avoid repeating myself again.  I notice I haven’t reviewed Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, so I’ll give it a shot.  They’re on tour now, co-headlining with Graveyard, with Twin Temple as the opening act.   I saw them last night at the Ram’s Head Live in downtown Baltimore, just a few blocks north of the Harbor.   Here’s the story.

Twin Temple.   Here was a nice surprise.  I’d never heard of this band before, but they may well prove to be more substantial.  Judging by the applause during their set and the amount of curious people indulging in their merchandise desk and having their pictures taken with Alexandra & Zachary, I’d say the odds are good.

Alexandra & Zachary James somehow managed to make a Satanic version of a 50’s doo-wop band, down to Zachary’s clever outfit and Alexandra’s beehive hairdo.   She was certainly eye candy and had the lungs to belt out the numbers.  I start with an inherent bias against opening acts I’ve never heard of, but they were certainly different and their music was well-executed.  They also featured a keyboardist and sax player.  Somewhat of a clever gimmick, but well played.  Mind you, like Ghost BC and KISS, their music is up to standard but is well overshadowed by the visual impact of the live show – for that reason I didn’t bother to buy their CD (or cassette).  But others may find them more compelling than I did.  Check them out. 

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats.   Hereinafter “UAD”. Current lineup:  Kevin “Uncle Acid” Starrs (lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitar); Vaughn Stokes (rhythm & lead guitar); Justin Smith (bass); Jon Rice (drums).  As my Facebook post notes, they have a keyboardist, who was off to the side and looked like he was tuning it during UAD’s set, which led me to wonder if he was doing so for Graveyard, until I recalled that (A) Graveyard don’t have a keyboardist and (B) the keyboards were cleared off the stage for Graveyard’s set. 

Discography:  Volume 1 (2010, recently reissued on CD); Blood Lust (2011); Mind Control (2013); The Night Creeper (2015); and Wastelands (2018).   I’d seen them earlier, in 2015, at the Baltimore Soundstage on the prior tour.  That venue is just a big room with a raised stage along one side, and that time I simply hovered around the back and watched.   This time around I got up to the barrier and watched up close.   Uncle Acid himself subscribes to a recent stage presence trend of “hunch over with your long hair obscuring your entire face and sing into the microphone”, making him effectively faceless for the duration of the set.  The band had a backdrop for visual footage which was fairly psychedelic and impressive.  

Their material is doomy but uptempo, with lots of minor progressions.  Many of the songs sound exactly the same, regardless of which album they originally came off of.   Insofar as doom bands tend to stick close around to Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill in terms of sound, UAD are well within that range, though not oppressively so.  The challenge is differentiating yourself from the Birmingham quartet which started this type of music, and I’d say UAD do this well enough.

Setlist:  I See Through You; Waiting For Blood; Mt. Abraxas; Mind Crawler; Death’s Door; Shockwave City; Crystal Spiders; Dead Eyes of London; Pusherman; I’ll Cut You Down; Blood Runner; 13 Candles; Melody Lane; No Return. 

Graveyard.  I actually could have seen them earlier, as an opening act for Clutch & Mastodon at the Pier Six Pavilion – just a few blocks south – back in May 2015.  I guess I wasn’t motivated enough. This was the second show on the tour, so those of you who may be interested who weren’t already committed to going, here’s your chance.

 

Graveyard dial back the doominess with a more clean sound closer to Garcia & Weir.  It’s easy enough to tolerate and strays off from Sabbath well far enough, but maybe too far.  I’m reminded a bit of Brinsley Schwartz, the “pub rock” band that appears on the Greasy Truckers live album with Man and Hawkwind, kind of like Grateful Dead without any jamming.  After the doomy heaviness and awesome visuals of UAD, Graveyard was downright dull.  They would have been better off going on BEFORE UAD.   Just a suggestion….

Setlist: Walk On; Please Don’t; The Fox; Hisingen Blues; Uncomfortably Numb; Bird of Paradise; Cold Love; Buying Truth (Tack & Forlat); Hard Times Lovin’; An Industry of Murder; It Ain’t Over Yet; Goliath; Magnetic Shunk; Encore: Low (I Wouldn’t Mind); Ain’t Fit To Live Here; The Siren.