The Duke Spirit/BRMC at Skully's

We made it to this "exclusive" show last night right around 8:15PM and walked down the red carpet (yes, they had a red fucking carpet, I shit you not) and into the "private" show. You may have noticed I just emphasized those words "exclusive" and "private", since I swear everybody and his brother showed up to see BRMC and The Duke Spirit rock the house at Skully's last night. We ran into one of Emily's old classmates from the Sculpture program, three or four of our co-workers said they went, and from what I heard, it was possible to just walk right in at some point in the night. Anyway, we got there early (The Duke Spirit took the stage at 9:30), and it's a good thing we did. It was a packed house and by the time BRMC went on, we were pretty much trapped right in front of the stage.

When The Duke Spirit came onto the stage with the broody, dark, "I Do Believe" playing through the speakers, the tone was set for the night...to an extent. What that song failed to capture was the unchained energy that would be released as soon Liela Moss took the microphone. Her brand of unchecked skill was something to behold as she channeled the likes of Janis Joplin, Beth Gibbons, and even Björk. So captivating was her performance that I found it incredibly difficult to wrest my gaze from her actions to see what the other members of this electrifying band were up to. When I was able to finally look around, I saw the bass player laying down a disgustingly moody and ethereal lick during "Dog Roses", the lead guitarist strutting and posturing on the PAs during the CD101 favorite, "The Step and the Walk", proving why they were the only band worth seeing at the recent CD101 day concert (other not-so-notable acts include Von Iva, Switches and Zox *yawn*). Even the drummer, who perservered through a perforated eardrum to rock the city of Columbus, brought the energy and enthusiasm that made this great performance into something incredible. I think Emily summed up the set best, "This band is awesome. I wanna punch someone in the face to this music". Amen.

BRMC started their set with a painfully, deliberately, agonizingly, awesomely slow version of "666 Conducer". After which these three majordomos in the house of bad ass-ery spewed forth a fucking epic shot of "Berlin" and a stomp, clap, rock swamp of "Ain't No Easy Way." At which point any semblance of journalistic integrity on my part went out the fucking window. I put my Moleskine in my pocket, kept my camera handy and just absorbed the show. I managed to catch a new song, "River Styx", the droning, stalking bass line was a perfect accompaniment to the filthy fucking rock of the song. Pardon the swearing, I think it's just a by-product of being in such close proximity to the rock. At the end of the show, someone else summed it up about as good as I ever could, when three random guys described BRMC's live show as, "dick kicking rock". Too true.

"Neptune's Call" The Duke Spirit
"Spread Your Love" Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

The Duke Spirit: Official MySpace Buy
BRMC: Official MySpace Buy