I invited quite a few fools to this True Widow show, but alas, I think maybe the darkish heavy tones of this ultra-slow rock band from Texas scared away my aging girlfriend-tied friends. Or perhaps, the minor threat of some kind of goth-doom inspired mosh-pit in a crowd of questionably-showered hipster metal-heads was too good of an offer to accept. But sincerely it was their loss, since instead of some kind of slow depressed nightmare sadness, True Widow's live show came across as more of a heavy, warm, peaceful blanket of sound to curl up next to the fire with, and slow down your life.
Something about playing songs that down-tempo and overdriven, comes as only a relief and reprieve from our distracted fast-paced modern city life. I get a similar feeling at a Ducktails or Kurt Vile concert, a chill-out factor that puts me in a nice low-key mood, of course True Widow does it in a louder, heavier way, but the effect is the same. For all of you tone heads, how does he get those sick guitar sounds? Well, I can't say for sure, since he hid half of his pedal board in a box of cables (is this a new trend?) but he was playing gibson humbuckers in stereo through a twin reverb for clean and a tweed deluxe for tube amp distortion, with a boss blues driver for boost/overdrive grit. Can't beat that setup. Beautiful.
I missed opener's Herzog Rising, who have the most insane band blog I've ever seen (check out the obama video!!). But Brooklyn's Bad Dream was pretty solid, similar to True Widow in a heavy bluesy way, but maybe not as slow and with more angst. Their singer/bassist has a fantastic scream, more like a roar, so you don't care if you can't make out the lyrics, since the melodies, tone and emotion are all there. Overall quite a satisfying show, and I have no regrets blowing off all other saturday-night invitations, in fact it was my friends' loss, for not taking a chance on an under-rated band from out of town.
