New music from The Pinkerton Raid

When my former N&O colleague Jesse James DeConto wrote to me recently about his band, The Pinkerton Raid, he described the music as "outlaw pop." I'm not sure I'm getting the "outlaw" part. To me that conjures up memories of bands like Lone Justice. Instead, the lush sounds on The Pinkerton Raid's self-titled debut are more reminiscent of 10,000 Maniacs and one of the band's stated influences, The National, with a smattering of World Party thrown in. Check out The Pinkerton Raid on their Reverb Nation page, and see them live tomorrow night (May 26) with Birds and Arrows at The Casbah. 

Confessor at Lincoln Theatre

I wrote about my impressions on Friday's Confessor show at Lincoln Theatre for the Independent. You can read that review here. See more photos. 

Photos and video of Salvacion, plus photos of Red Warlock and Pontiak

Last Thursday was one of those nights where I go out intending to see one band, and end up catching something else entirely. I was all prepared to spend the majority of my evening at Kings seeing Pontiak -- and I did spend a good bit of time there. But before heading over, I went to Slim's, and was totally blown away by Salvacion, a raucous dual-guitar classic metal band from Wilmington. I'd listened to their stuff before and liked it, but I was completely won over by their live show. They ended up being my favorite band of the evening. Looking forward to seeing them again.

Cool shows this week Kraken Fest, Pontiak and more!

Continuing a fine tradition of really cool shows happening while I'm out of town, this week's show of the week is KrakenFest, a really cool trans-North Carolina show happening this Saturday, April 7, at the Kraken Bar in Chapel Hill. Colossus drummer Milton Doza Hawes put this show together, and supplied the following description:

We're having an outdoor metal cookout in chapel hill Apr 7 at the Kraken Bar. Tickets include 6 bands plus all you can eat bbq. It's a special show because I wanted to represent a cross section of metal sounds from bands spread all across the state from the mountains to the coast.

I want people to see that our entire state is a vibrant place for music and that metal is thriving and evolving.
 The lineup, from West to East:
US Xmas: from the NC mountains near Asheville, representing folk/metal/blues/psychedelic
Mountain of Judgement: from the foothills near Hickory, representing doom/psychedelic/ambient Boolow: from the piedmont near Shelby, representing hardcore/metal
Ruscha: from Chapel Hill, representing instrumental downtuned technical awesomeness
Colossus: from the Triangle, representing classic metal
White Tiger and the Bed of Roses: from the coast, representing punk/hardcore/rock
Then dance your ass off at the 80's Afterparty with DJ Fader

OK, this show features metal, an '80s dance party and some 'cue. Is there any question that this would be the show of the week? Go and tell me how it is. I'll be at the coast waiting hand and foot on my mom while she recovers from cataract surgery. There's also a pretty good chance I will be at sunrise services on Sunday, so I think it's safe to say you'll have a more rockin' weekend than me.

 Also this week, Pontiak will be at Kings with Left Outlet on Wednesday. I've liked this band for a while, but haven't had a chance to see them since their Reservoir show back in 2007. I'll definitely be at Wednesday's show.

 The band has just released the album "Echo Ono" on Thrill Jockey. Here's "Highest Echo" off of that release. And here's video of the band playing "Panoptica" / "Lions of Least" in Rome.

 

Windhand and Balaclava at Slim's

I've been trying not to use a flash when I shoot bands, mostly because I don't want to get on the band's nerves, but partly because I think most band shots work better with ambient light. But when shooting at Slim's, where the stage is small and dimly lit, sometimes that doesn't work out.

Windhand, a solid female-fronted '70s-style doom band from Richmond, were awesome last Saturday night. But singer Dorthia Cottrell performed in the audience rather than on the stage, which basically meant she was in the dark the whole time. Still, I kind of like the trippiness of the shots I got.

And these guys were loud. This was one of the few shows where I actually wore earplugs. As a result, the audio is blown out here, but you can still get an idea of what they sound like.

I feel bad because I really and truly thought Balaclava was called BACLAVA. Luckily the band (who are also from Richmond) laughed when I told them, and said that's a common mistake. They were a lot faster and thrashier than Windhand.  See more photos. 

During the show I noticed that I knew almost NO ONE at the show. Turns out the rather considerable crowd had traveled from Richmond to see two bands that they probably get to see on a regular basis. That's dedication. I'm sorry Raleigh missed such an awesome show, and I wonder if there's any band here that would inspire so many people to drive to another state to see them.

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