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The
Gilded Palace of Sin Presents:
DEADSTRING BROTHERS plus WINTER
(Note: Winter on stage at 8.15pm)
Sunday 23rd April
The Hanbury Ballroom, St. George's Road, Kemp Town
Tickets on sale NOW £6.50 adv. + b/fee from Rounder (01273) 325440
and Resident (01273) 606312 - £8 on door
Doors 7:30pm
That
DEADSTRING BROTHERS will be only the second band to make
a fourth visit to The Gilded Palace of Sin* is somehow fitting; their
sound being as rooted in the scene and music from which we took our name
as anything penned by those ‘other’ brothers (the BURRITOs).
That the only other band to do so to date has been THE (awesome) SADIES
gives you an indication of how much we love this lot.
It seems as though every other review of ‘the Deadstrings’
raises the spectre of ‘if GRAM PARSONS had actually
joined THE ROLLING STONES’ – this being the
clearest signal to uninitiated ears as to what they might sound like.
Not many bands combine the rock swagger of Jagger’n’Keef (on
their day) with the ethereal twang of Cosmic American Music. Deadstring
Brothers do both – in spades. No surprise, then, that we are grateful
that they chose to bring forward the start of their UK tour so that we
could fit in a Brighton date.
Hailing from Detroit as they do, one might also
argue that some of that city’s fabled garage ‘attitude’
has found its way into the Deadstring’s armoury. They cut a mean
dash on stage, and while The Free Butt’s scuzzy but cool (oh, yes
it is!) seemed a perfect home for their first two visits, we figured a
few more of you would be turning out for this show following their triumphant
performance supporting RICHMOND FONTAINE at Concorde
2 last October. Accordingly, we’ve decamped to the Hanbury this
time around.
The legendary BLOODSHOT
RECORDS (if you’re here, you know who they are… if
you don’t, hit http://www.bloodshotrecords.com
- pronto: you don’t know what you’re missing!) snapped them
up in time to release their second album, Starving Winter Report,
which fills out the ‘Deadstrings sound’ with brass flourishes
- and nods to THE BAND (and not just on their cover of
Get Up Jake – a live favourite) and DYLAN (frontman
Kurt Marschke’s lyrical skills continue to blossom). See http://www.deadstringbrothers.co.uk/reviews.htm
for some glowing press, which sums them up as well as we could. They stormed
this year’s SXSW too: one reporter selecting them amongst his ten
highlights of the festival (which has hundreds of gigs) and no less than
Bloodshot themselves claiming it to be the best showcase they’ve
ever had
As good as the records are, there is simply no substitute for experiencing
Deadstring Brothers in the live arena (arena? OK, the Concorde 2 is the
biggest room they’ve played to date in Brighton, but one day, you
never know…). It is on stage that they really come to life; it could
be the ‘cool-as’ cheekbones of bass player Phil Skarich, the
languid but tight drumming of E Travis Harrett, or the vocal duelling
of Masha Marejh and guitar slinger/singer Marschke – or it could
be the ‘glue’ provided by one of the greatest pedal steel
players we have ever seen, one Nick Zala (also seen at TGPoS with
JUSTIN RUTLEDGE and MOJAVE 3). He is all over
the bloody thing! Anorak’s aside incidentally, they’re
so good at what they do that - in the States - pedal steel duties are
performed by TOMMY SPURLOCK (Emmylou/ George Jones –
and Robbie Robertson’s BAND (v.2) –nah, bet he’s still
not as good as ‘our Nick’!)
And, whisper it, but there are a more than a few people who will tell
you that Deadstring Brothers stole the show when they supported the gigantic
RICHMOND FONTAINE. IF you want to be able to verify this,
well, there’s only one place to be come 23rd APRIL (no,
I don’t think we’ll have the tables at the front for this
one, Matt).
Support this evening comes from a band we confess to knowing very little
about, but who have a number of things in their favour: one, they are
Swedish, and we have both already waxed lyrical about the wealth of great
Swedish bands (it’s the long winter nights, or something), and –
two - they come highly recommended by people for whom we (in turn) have
a massive amount of respect.
So, enough cap-doffing; welcome WINTER (the band, that
is; we wouldn’t want to confuse you after the clocks have just gone
back and the daffs are out). Not ones for overstatement (well, they are
Swedes) their 10-track album is called, err, Ten Songs, and if other esteemed
promoters are to be believed, Winter too know how to use a stage –
one describes them as “a delightful, seamless fusion a band that
draws on rock, pop, Americana, folk, roots and blues” and cites
LUCINDA WILLIAMS, 10000 MANIACS and
FLEETWOOD MAC as touchstones. All good enough for us.
We’ll be there from ‘the off’, of course, but respectfully
advise that you join us at your earliest convenience.
THE GILDED PALACE of SIN - 'Til the bleeding stops...
* Fourth visit, that is, as a band (so no ‘solo’ member visits)
and under the same name (so no South San Gabriel/Centro-matic) –
and at the time of writing, although Willard Grant Conspiracy are about
to repeat the feat next month. Hey, the nights can be quiet in Saltdean,
we need to pass the time now and again…
www.deadstringbrothers.com
www.deadstringbrothers.co.uk
www.bloodshotrecords.com
www.winternet.nu