100 Shows of 2010 - #36: Dead Meadow @ Black Cat, 6/15/10

I knew weeks ago that this show would be killer. I mean, Dead Meadow playing my favorite bar on my birthday night, how could it possibly be anything other than amazing? But oh, sweet friends. I was just not prepared at all for how very much I would be rendered speechless by the sheer fucking fantasticness of it all. Dead Meadow took all of my lofty expectations for my first time seeing them live and absolutely shattered the hell out of them. Happy goddam birthday to me, indeed.

MINI RECAP: Dead Meadow = Have Mercy on Me! Overall score: A-.

The band was raucously wonderful from the get go, and I’m not just talkin’ about that moustache sported by drummer Stephen McCarty, either. The backstage at the Black Cat was pretty full to witness the former locals in their return to the city. “It’s good to be back here in DC, our hometown,” said Jason Simon, in between waves of killing me with that guitar of his, a feat that happened all night long. Showing serious axe skills and shredding and careening all over the place, he won a place in my cold, black heart. Simon can wail for days, my loves. For days. Throughout the set, the Dead Meadow sound was absolutely mammoth, colossal even. Song after song was heady and loud and totally transfixing.

Also transfixing was the dude in a brightly-colored mu-mu wandering around at the show. Gotta love a guy with the cajones enough to go out decked out like a lost member of The Polyphonic Spree. Simon’s insane guitar skills snapped me out of my mu-mu gazing right quick, and I was once more drawn in like a kid listening to the Pied Piper. It was a lusciously loud set, just how I like things. Dead Meadow may or may not be classified as stoner rock, but there sure were some folks in the crowd who looked a little on the stoned side. For their part, the trio comprising Dead Meadow looks a little throwback, and they sound a whole lotta throwback. And again, for me it all goes back to Simon’s guitar. The guitar, oh have mercy that guitar. Jason Simon, you officially killed me not-so-softly with your songs.

I loved the big, bad bastard wolf rockness of it all, the sweet mercy drone and murky hum and pressing weight of it all, and how it felt as though we had all time-warped back to the mid-70s for a brief, beautiful time. I love me some Dead Meadow, I can tell you that much for damn sure. It’s music to take a slow ride to, or take a magic carpet ride to, or to be dazed and confused by. Spending my birthday with Dead Meadow turned out to be one hell of a present.

mp3: Such Hawks Such Hounds (unreleased Dead Meadow from Three Kings sessions)