Dead Low Tide, Pleasure Forever & Isabell

Opening the show with their usual stellar performance was Isabell. As tends to be the case in this town, there was basically nobody in the Brick Works, so almost everyone missed what might have been the best performance of the night. Singer / guitarist Ben Tietz belted out lyrics; Ryan Zachary rocked out on bass (though it sucks that his last one was stolen, his new bass is infinitely cooler looking than his old Danelectro) and threw in occasional screams; Trevor Sellers' interplay with Tietz on guitar fleshed out the songs and Casey Deitz's soft-hard drumming held everything in place. I don't know what else to say about this band, I've seen them a million times and they continue to play powerful, dynamic rock.
Up next was Pleasure Forever of Portland, Oregon. These guys used to be in The VSS, one of the most amazing live bands I had ever had the pleasure of witnessing. The VSS was an electronic hardcore punk band featuring keyboards and drum sequencing and rocked the fuck out on stage. Pleasure Forever featured a guitar (Joshua Hughes), keyboards (Andy Rothbard) and drum (David Clifford) lineup and songs that were a bit more theatrical than their old band's. Rothbard's vocals were a bit lost in the mix from where I was standing, but other than that their set was tight. Drummer David Clifford placed his drums at the front of the stage and kept the beat from between the two other members. Clifford's hairstyle was the talk of the night - he played from behind his hair and could've won a Davey Havok lookalike contest - along with their music.
Closing the night was Dead Low Tide, a band with maybe the nerdiest looking frontline in rock - Nate Manny on guitar, Mike Kunka on bass and the angry sailor himself, Spencer Moody on vocals. The crowd mainly looked confused as they played; it seems everyone was expecting the Murder City Devils part two, but what they got was more along the lines of Drive Like Jehu or Hot Snakes than Murder City's revival rock. Moody's presence behind the mic is innate; he takes control with such force it is hard not to be converted to the Church of Spencer. His guttural howls - which fit in perfectly with Murder City's sound - make an odd fit to this new brand of angular rock, but that odd fit makes the music that much more interesting. Manny's off kilter riffs and Kunka's driving bass lines played nicely off each other, though this being one of the band's first performances it seemed that they were not completely comfortable as a group yet. Kunka and Manny remained reserved and the overall audience response was less than enthusiastic. But I imagine next time they come through the show will be sold out - instead of the half full Brick Works they faced at this show - and the crowd will go ape-shit.
- Brian Brophy
- Photo By Alyssa Starkey

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