Audio By Carbonatix
The Black Lips With King Khan & BBQ and PVC Street Gang Granada Theater, Dallas Saturday, September 13, 2014
There’s been a fair amount of talk about rock ‘n’ roll music in the past few months. Whether it’s an unintelligible acceptance speech by Alex Turner or the death sentence handed to it by Gene Simmons, the genre has been dancing in limbo.
Enter Black Lips with their delightfully depraved stage rapport, bringing together newer whip-smart garage sensibilities and classic-rock song styles. In all their stage-vomiting, firework-shooting, beer-spitting, clothes-stripping antics, they break down social barriers to bind everyone in a unifying endeavor: getting loaded and having a good time.
And although there was an (unfortunate?) lack of urination and vomiting at the Granada Theater on Saturday, there was no shortage of spirited, enthralling garage rock coupled with the drunken howl-a-long of the audience. (Cole Alexander did spit beer into the air and then catch in his mouth a few times, though.) Whether or not it’s indicative of “maturity,” whatever that really means, it isn’t at the expense of the honest, no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll that they bring to every show.
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Bass player Jared Swilley perfectly epitomized the idea of the band blending the old with the new: Wearing a white v-neck and skinny jeans, he wielded his gorgeous violin bass as the band thundered through their set. The far-reaching appeal of the band was also evident in the crowd, drawing equally from the horn-rimmed types and the ones wearing Zeppelin and Sabbath T-shirts. Even the band’s setup, with four different members all offering vocals, hearkens back to an older era, with different lead singers for different types of songs.
In having all the members sing, Black Lips’ songs almost feel like they’re just meant to be played live — and they are. With each musician singing, and maybe being a bit off key, the audience is all the more encouraged to pitch in. This often incomprehensible combination of voices was resoundingly felt Saturday night on the jingle-jangly performance of “Bad Kids,” with everyone bopping their heads accordingly.
The typically tame Granada audience broke loose as well, with even two wayward souls daring to crowd surf on the decently sized mosh pit. Although Black Lips might feel a bit more at home at a venue in Deep Ellum, where the lower stage and closer proximity to the band would lend to their type of show, the devout Lips following made the Granada into the perfect stage.
The indisputable highlight of the show was the band’s sauntering, swinging performance of “Boys in the Wood.” The bluesy song stumbled along with a calculated clumsiness, the stage drenched in dark as it approached the chorus. When the chorus hit, the stage beamed light on the four members as they all belted out the chorus with the crowd in tow. Only a handful of people resisted the urge to sway and sing along to the bellowing chorus lines, a crowning example of how Black Lips transcends the band/audience dynamic, and instead makes it a drunken, voice-ruining, sweaty, collective party experience. An experience that won’t ever die out, regardless of what that nasty old Gene Simmons says.
Side Note: The King Khan and BBQ Show killed it. Go listen to them. Their performance with the Black Lips at the end of the show was the perfect song to go out on.
