Dead Meadow – 229, London 20/09/08

25 September 2008, 17:45 | Written by Lucy Johnston

(Live)

Tonight I’m seeing Dead Meadow. Now, many who are not familiar with the Los Angeles trio’s live sets might not know what that first sentence implies… those who are however, will. I know, without a whisper of a doubt that tonight I shall leave the venue (tonight its the ungainly 229) like so many times before, grinning like an inane idiot, humming and warbling bass lines and guitar riffs for as long as my eyes are awake and my vocal chords will oblige. Tonight is Dead Meadow, and I can hardly contain myself.

These stoner-rock troubadours are finishing their UK tour tonight, in what sadly seems to be a small, newly furbished SU bar. Upon entering 229 to the dulcet tones of The Beep Seals (a band I hope to hear more of) I can’t help but feel a little surprised at the choice of venue for tonight’s eagerly anticipated headliners. However, any thoughts about the venue and its lack of atmosphere are blown from my tiny mind as soon as Kille, Simon and McCarty step on stage, whisky bottle and beer cans in hand. Known for their intense live shows, storming crowds with obsessive drones that can make the hardest rock melt under the sheer brilliance of their fuzzy drawls and wah-wah pedals, Dead Meadow are here to deliver.

Tonight, as usual Dead Meadow are on fucking FIRE. Despite a bad PA, where Jason’s vocals get lost in the mix for the first half of the set, Dead Meadow still manage to slay their audience with their unrelenting riffs that penetrate every vibrating rib cage in this well-lit oblong room. Kille’s heavy bass grooves yet again take no prisoners and McCarty’s drumming settles into lightspeed gear seamlessly, leaving planet earth and all its mudanity somewhere far far away. Jason, finally when heard, brings it all together singing bitter-sweetly albeit into an over muffled mic.

They play a varied set, including songs off their latest release Old Growth balancing it out and keeping the die-hard fans happy with the choice cut classics (including songs Good Moanin’, Beyond The Fields We Know and At Her Open Door to name but a few). Songs organically grow, building and releasing, breaking heads with psychedelic stoner rock grooves that drag the audience under like a brutal but beautiful tidal wave. When it comes to the encore, all eyes and ears are dribbling for more and with the song to end all sets (the infamous set clincher, Sleepy Silver Door) the once stiff, polite London crowd is now a mass of sweaty, head banging shoegazers, lost in this gloriously relentless swarm of beats and drones. Dead Meadow never disappoint and deliver yet another brilliant live experience, leaving this reviewer breathless, sweaty and foot sore….but more than anything, happy.

Dead Meadow are a live band not to be reckoned with. See them play, IT’S IMPORTANT!