Man, I’ve been to a ton of shows at Lee’s Palace this year — and sad to say, but I think this one had the smallest crowd of all of them. Granted, it was a Tuesday night…but c’mon man, Earthless! Let’s just say that those who did show up did not leave this show disappointed.
I was also pretty stoked to check out opening act Sacri Monti. This heavy-psych quintet also hails from San Diego, and has put out a couple records on Tee Pee, which never seemed to make it to the top of my review pile. They were a little more structured than Earthless, with dual guitars, keys and vocals in every song, but their sounds set the stage quite nicely.
Now, I was pretty surprised to see Maggot Heart receive second billing over Sacri Monti — when the show was announced, I assumed they were the local openers. Turns out, the band is from Germany, and their claim to semi-fame is that their guitar player once played in a band with the singer from Lucifer. Still, they were a rather odd addition to the lineup, with their sound falling somewhere between grunge and horror punk. I wouldda rather seen Sacri Monti jam for another 30 minutes!!!
Earthless did not bring the same psychedelic lava lamp light show they had last year — but they brought the jams, and that’s all that matters. The ensemble playing of Mitchell, Eginton and Rubalcaba was locked in for several instrumental space launches. Even though their last album had multiple songs with vocals, they made use of the mic for less than five minutes of an 80 minute set…until their customary encore of the Groundhogs’ “Cherry Red,” anyways.
