Review: Pentagram 3.7.09

#9
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Pentagram
Priestess
The Devil's Blood
Sonar

First, why would you get full calf tattoos and then wear jeans? Waste of skin. Still hot though.
Second, it was very nice to see Mr. & Mrs. J, whom I missed last week in Philly. It's good to have people to commiserate with during the hard times (like watching Priestess).

I don't know who was playing when I walked in. It was OK I guess, but they never said their name. Way to market yourselves there.

So apparently The Devil's Blood is some type of Dutch cult, hailing from the town of Eindhoven (we had an exchange student from there in HS). It was super-weird. Their (female) singer was decked out in a satin gown and was practically motionless for much of the set. Then she would stand facing the drummer with her arms down at her sides, but stiff, so that her hands and arms didn't touch her body. I don't really know how to describe them musically, 70's doomy kind of stuff.

After that, Montreal's Priestess. And the singing. Oh god, the singing. The first song, the singing was like pure torture. One of the other guitarists and the drummer also sang on some of the songs but I might have been painfully inoculated to the bad singing during the first song, because I didn't think they were so bad. Musically, I actually liked it. Consider going instrumental.
ETA: their recorded songs are pretty good, though I'm still not a fan of the singing it's not as bad as it was live *shudder at the memory*

And finally, the legendary Pentagram. It was quite an interesting crowd - oldsters, hipsters, those guys who wear vests with patches from bands I've never heard of, punky kids, several hot Ottobar bouncers, etc. For some reason, the sound was terrible for most of their set. Don't know what was going on here. Bobby Liebling was wearing the same shirt as the last time I saw him except now he has a crazy pornstache and was strutting around like Mick Jagger and humping the guitarist and talks like he's got marbles in his mouth. The bass player looked out of breath after one song. It was nuts. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with Pentagram (though I love bands inspired by Pentagram and named after witchcraft). They did play their best known songs though. At least I can check them off of the list of bands to see before they die, so I have no regrets.
*update: LINK to NYC show info and photos*