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Bugs and Rats, Medicine 4 Tim, Dead Like Death Live Review
Category: Music

BUGS AND RATS, MEDICINE 4 TIM, DEAD LIKE DEATH
Dee Dees 1/13/07

I don't know if it's the PA overloading, but Dead Like Deaths' lead singer sounds like his voice is a rusty chainsaw blade trying to cut through a streetlight pole. And this is not a bad thing. The three piece behind him sounds like a cross between Black Sabbath and Black Flag, raunchy and spastic like your kid brother using swear words for the first time. Dee Dee's is filling up quickly during their set, and they've got everyone's attention. The band's momentum grows heftier with each song, like a bar tab on a Saturday night. The vocalist continues to shred the atmosphere of the room, the drummer looks like someone slipped him some amphetamines and the guitarist looks like he's going to start moshing. Only the bassist is fixed in his spot, providing backing vocals and moral support. They leave the crowd wanting more.

Before his set, Medicine 4 Tim's drummer, Tim, tells me that "it's time to bring the pipes back into the band." He delivers on his statement by leading Herb the guitarist and some other dude into the room playing bagpipes. With the crowd sufficiently rowdy, they launch into their set with their newest and most interesting lead singer in years. Going with a young woman with a set of pipes is the only way to dispel the ghosts of singers past, and yes, it's all new for them. Her youthful angst seems to make these dudes sound crankier, the edge of their sound more jagged, raw and exposed. There's something to the quality of her pain that is still difficult for the boys to get a harness around, but they achieve traction at several points during their set and crank it out.

Bugs and Rats sound like Nirvana before a producer took away their edge. This is a three piece with no frills. Vocals blown out and desperate. A drummer whose style resembles Animal from the Muppet Show. They go into a weird, dissonant groove that somehow comes off as melodic at points, pure post-punk at others. These boys are bizarre and disturbed, unafraid of the possibility that someone might not like them. This kind of fearlessness has all but vanished from rock music, and they are rewarded for their efforts by having the bouncer shut down the power to their instruments before the end of their set. Pure punk stigmata. A sort of dazed confusion drifts across the room and it appears the night is over.