Reunited Murder City Devils powerfully in control

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      At the Commodore on Friday, February 13

      For those who can actually remember being there back in the day, there were signs on Friday night that the reunited Murder City Devils no longer have the accelerator stomped hard to the floor. For example, where the band’s resident bad girl Leslie Hardy used to smoke approximately a carton and a half of Marlboro Reds during a show, there was no ashtray or burning-skull candles on her keyboard. Drummer Coady Willis managed to refrain from torching his kit, which admittedly might have had something to do with fire-code regulations, and no one puked on-stage.

      Not only that, it was difficult to tell if singer Spencer Moody was even drunk. As anyone who was on a first-name basis with the Brickyard bartenders circa 2000 will recall, the bespectacled frontman used to stagger onto the stage of the Gastown dive with about-to-barf drool strings hanging from his chin. While it’s entirely possible that he was chugging back straight vodka this night, it looked like Moody was making do with water in a clear plastic cup. There was no trail of empty Rolling Rock bottles, no half-empty 40 pounders of Jack Daniel’s, no puddles of red wine. The Murder City Devils were completely in control. Thankfully, that didn’t make them any less powerful.

      From the looks of those sardined into the sold-out room, a good half of the audience wasn’t of drinking age during the Seattle garage upstarts’ initial run in the late ’90s. And here’s betting an original vinyl pressing of Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts that most newbies have stumbled onto the sextet through up-and-coming bands who shoot for cool points by name-checking the Devils in interviews.

      Although Moody, Hardy, Willis, bassist Derek Fudesco, and guitarists Dann Gallucci and Nate Manny have gotten together for Seattle shows over the past couple of years, Vancouver was part of a West Coast tour, hinting the future might hold something more than one-offs. Indeed, the original lineup seemed genuinely amped to be there, with Moody going as far as sweeping Hardy off her feet with a sloppy bear hug after a razor-sharp “I Drink the Wine”.

      Missing was the debauched, well-off-the-rails mayhem of the Brickyard shows that made the Devils genuine legends in these parts. Compensating for that was that the band has no shortage of monster songs. The stuttering “Press Gang” was all organ-soaked brilliance, while the grunge-grimed “I Want a Lot Now (So Come On)” found Gallucci and Manny channelling Pete Townshend back in the airborne years.

      As for the fans, old and new, they owe the Murder City Devils plenty, for no other reason than the band was instrumental in reviving the corpse of rock ’n’ roll back when the world was all turntables, glow sticks, and oversized clown pants. Props to the chick who got so excited after “Rum to Whiskey” that she jumped on-stage, whipped down her gear, and gave the crowd a full moon, complete with a beav shot.

      The highlight of the night should have been a landscape-scorching version of “18 Wheels”, which found the Devils banging away on all V8-sized cylinders. Instead, it turned out to be a show-closing speech by Moody. Looking a tad wobbly and a bit misty—perhaps that was vodka in his cup, after all—he admitted that the Murder City Devils never expected to get beyond the basement, adding that he hoped the group has inspired others to do something creative, whether it be to “sew skirts or make hats or make polka music”. The subsequent roar from the floor was as deafening as it was incomprehensible, but damn if it didn’t sound something like “welcome back”.

      Comments