Video: Deer Tick and Dead Confederate celebrate St. Louis rock scene at Off Broadway

At 9 p.m. the line to enter Off Broadway spilled a block and a half down Lemp Avenue. Had the Hanson show been relocated from the Pageant? No. Was the club giving out free personal air conditioners with every ticket purchase? If only.

Two scruffy, gritty, messy rock bands were playing: Dead Confederate (from Athens, Ga.) and Deer Tick (from Providence, R.I.). A good bill, but on a steamy August Thursday, the crowd had other motivations. St. Louis band Fattback was to open, but without singer Dave Hagerty, who died as a result of a hit-and-run car wreck this week, the night became a gathering, a consolation over Jager backed by PBR for friends and families and anyone who loves a good, sweaty, loud rock & roll show. The bands donated some of the door to a memorial fund for the Hagerty family and his girlfriend Ellen Cook, who is recuperating from the same wreck. (You can contribute here.) I didn’t know Hagerty, but many I do know did, and it was clear, from the embraces and shared looks and words of condolence, that he meant a lot to a lot of people.

And so on with the music: Dead Confederate played a set of heavy doom and psych rock that — with double monster Fender cabs and a power supply fed by God’s own nuclear reactor — set my ears ringing and my feet moving for the back patio. What I heard through the shaking brick walls sounded most excellent, though it wasn’t until the final, chaotic, skronking jam that the crowd got it. Loud couldn’t get any louder.

Deer Tick, led by John Joseph McCauley III, opened by dedicating the evening to a great local music scene, wishing Fattback was playing, and picking out “Sleep Walk,” the classic country instrumental, which McCauley said was the most beautiful song he knew, and to which he was married and to which he would “be lowered into the grave” as well. He just about nailed it on the guitar, all cable shortings-out aside. And then into a guitar-free opening vocal work out and then the band’s current single, “20 Miles.” The mix was just right, the band covered a bit of Hanson, the sold-out crowd responded — and circulated in and out, to escape the heat, present company included — and everyone exchanged perspiration and toasts.

At the end of a passionately, sincerely rocked, hour-and-a-half set, McCauley shook a beer, said “This is for Dave,” and sprayed the room. It felt good.

Dead Confederate video after the jump.


Posted by | August 6, 2010 | Concerts, Video/Film | 1 Comment 

Comments

  • http://danpritch.wordpress.com/ Dan Pritchett

    This show was so awsome. RIP Dave, and cant wait to see Dead Confederate at The Firebird.