Review: All Them Witches, Bierkeller

The Bierkeller was busy early, with a motley collection of beards, tattoos, faded tour tees, denim and leather – laid back and with a sense of quiet anticipation on a surprisingly warm October evening.  The Ghost Wolves soon fucked up that laid back atmosphere with a ferocious set of psychobilly blues tunes that galvanised the crowd from the opening number.

Carley “Carazy” Wolf (guitar & vocals, looking like Calamity Jane as imagined by Rob Zombie) and Jonathan “Little Hammer” Wolf (drums & vocals, total greaser – probably had a BSA parked outside ready for a ton-up run to the Ace Café) battered the hell out of their instruments creating an unholy yet unavoidably foot tapping head-banging blend of rockabilly blues. Imagine if Lux Interior and Poison Ivy had raided the bargain bins for old country blues instead of obscure rockabilly numbers. And had to play them at Download. That’s about half the story though because somehow there was a Theremin (possibly?) in the mix, Wolf, J swung like Bonzo with crazy ass polyrhythms and Wolf, C managed to get surf twang and sci-fi feedback all over the riffs.

Wolf, C worked the crowd throughout with the fervour of someone simultaneously selling snake oil, Jebus and the Golden Gate Bridge, bossing the crowd and making her presence felt: a hyperactive blur of helium voiced motion.  It’s not often a support gets a full throated singalong but this gal had the crowd singing along to half the set, and to be frank the band went down a storm.

Although the two piece format can be limited stylistically, these two managed to bring plenty of different strands of roots music together to keep it fresh. The bastard heavy riffs certainly helped and Wolf, C managed to conjure a smorgasbord of riffs and solos too, busy fingers all night. Grandma’s a Rebel (Raised by the Devil) closed the set, not so much an ear worm as an ear barracuda and it left the grinning crowd hollering for more.

Any seasoned gig goer knows there are portents for an exceptional gig…playing War Pigs at top volume as your walk on music is one of them (and how sweet was it to see all the couples arm in arm singing along? Bless). The drummer starting the show with his shirt off is another, and the rammed Bierkeller was not disappointed – All Them Witches tore the venue a new one.

The Nashville band were ferociously in sync with each other and are a bong-load of riffs away from the typical sounds emanating from their home town. They jammed out tunes and allowed each other space for extemporisation of the finest kind – not too much, not too little.  The sound was a fine synthesis of classic rock, prog and metal. Drummer Robby Staebler channelling Bill Ward; bassist Charles Michael Parks Jr forcefully melodic like Lemmy or Lynott; guitarist Ben McLeod sounding like Gilmour trying to fuse the riffs from The Nile Song with the solos from Shine on You Crazy Diamond and keyboard man Allan Van Cleave giving it the full Manzarek. And yet the band have a sound all of their own – grooves, riffs and punk attack but quirky tweaks, prog noodles and WTF lyrics adding up to a set full of variety and surprise.

The set was lengthy, fourteen or so songs, some straight from the recordings and others extended to pleasing effect. The new LP Sleeping through the War featured but didn’t dominate although a throbbing Alabaster stood out – “a dance tune” and Bulls was fuzzy yet rocking. Parks has a strong delivery (and is an engaging front man), occasionally barely singing but rather speaking the lyric, adding to the trippy ambience prevalent at times. The band maintained a vibe throughout that whilst workmanlike in terms of effort, concentration and the energy invested in the performance, was clearly an enjoyable experience for them. Parks enjoying the response from the crowd and clearly enjoying his bandmates work too. There are plenty of doom / stoner bands around but what differentiates the Witches is their willingness to push the genre: the prog excursions and psychedelia marbled throughout the songs; chiming Byrds-like guitars contrasting with heavy riffs and a groove throughout that funked up the heaviness.

Just the one encore but an ambitiously lengthy take on Mountain was more than satisfactory, greeted with elation and a final opportunity for the crowd to singalong, get their groove on and roar the band off the stage. There’s a select few bands anointed by the gatekeepers of fashion as the saviours of “guitar based rock” (no, me neither) and they go on to massive but short lived success. Meanwhile there are dozens of talented outfits selling out venues and making a lot of people happy with recordings full of passion, power and wonder. All Them Witches are one of those bands – count on them playing a bigger room next time, and count on being impressed when you see them.

Pix by Shona Cutt

All Them Witches: Bierkeller, Saturday 7th October 2017