Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis, MN
September 19, 2005
L.A.’s Black Rebel Motorcyle Club were big in the late 90’s. Noel Gallagher (Oasis) declared them his favorite band earning them instant credibility with certain crowds, and yet they maintained their dark, mysterious image while peers-of-the-time the Strokes and the White Stripes had their glory in the public eye.
But for their new album, “Howl,” B.R.M.C. abandoned the lazy, wall of feedback sound that encapsulated their former career — giving up the lo-fi Jesus and Mary Chain for a Dylan-meets-’O Brother Where Art Thou, southern back-country folk. And rightly so, it pissed off a lot of their fans.
On Monday night, B.R.M.C. took the stage at Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Cafe with two agendas. A). Kick off with nu-BRMC: religious lyrics, American acoustic folky-blues, an unappreciative crowd, repetitive verses ala Dylan, and then B). Break out the old stuff, rock out, pretend the previous songs never existed. REPEAT.
Live in concert, B.R.M.C.comes off like a balls-out teenager on the first day of freshman year. He may not know where he’s going or what people think, but he knows he’ll get there fast and everyone can make up their mind when they catch up, not that he’ll care anyway.
Now we LOVE “Howl,” and think it’s a great continuation of classic traditional country blues. It’s full of gems and musicality, but for the purpose of a live show, we’d pick one agenda or the other. Anyone off the street showing up to see a band called Black Rebel Motorcyle Club last night would have been let down. But we guess that adds to the group’s dark, mysterious image. We prefer the south southern delta B.R.M.C. and loved the album more than the show.
Look out – next record could be something else completely different. Dare we say polka?
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Download Howl here:
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