Oct 1 2014 – Uncle Acid & the deadbeats invaded Lee’s Palace on September 28th night for their highly anticipated first ever visit to Toronto. Fans of the English pyschedelic doom metal band filled the venue to capacity on a Sunday night. Uncle Acid & the deadbeats’ third album Mind Control has brought them worldwide attention and an opening slot for Black Sabbath’s tour last year.
First up though, opening for Uncle Acid was Danava, a progressive, metal band from Portland, Oregen who played a mindblowing set highlighted by the spectacular guitar wizardry of frontman Greg Meleney. We’re generally not huge metal fans. Nothing can put me to sleep faster than a fluttering double bass pedal and grunted vocals (I know that makes me sound like an old man but hey, get off my lawn!), Danava was neither. There was no doubt about Meleney’s words were clear, the voice was strong (was oh so strong… uhh, sorry (and ignore it if the reference was not immediately obvious). Anyway, the musicianship of each member was phenomenal and the band was extremely tight, like a heavier version of Rush. Alongside Meleney is Zachariah Dellorto-Blackwell on bass, Andrew Forgash on rhythm guitar and Matthew Oliver on drums. Meleney took time out to acknowledge his love of Toronto pyschedelic rockers Blood Ceremony (and we agree) and got a huge cheer from the appreciative audience.
Uncle Acid & the deadbeats is frontman K.R. Starrs on guitar and vocals, Yotam Rubinger on guitar and backing vocals, Dean Miller on bass and Itamar Rubinger on drums. Sounding like a mix of early Sabbath, a touch of influences of early Floyd with a hint of pyschedelic-era Beatles, low and slow was the order of the day for Uncle Acid & the deadbeats. The focus is on very heavy droning riffs, punctuated by emphatic crescendoes, reminiscent of Toronto’s own heavy pysch rockers Biblical, whose frontman Nick Sewell, was in attendance. Much (all?) of songs were played on guitars tuned down a step and a half to C#, a tone that adds an extra creepy feeling. Contributing to the doom atmosphere was the virtual complete lack of light on stage, aside from a couple glowing yellow cat’s eyes. I was almost questioning my personal “no flash” policy because the photos were unusable. Instead of photos, here are four extremely dark videos for the opener Mt.Abraxas and I’ll Cut You Down, Death’s Door and Poison Apple, wicked songs all. Oddly perhaps, these last songs were played mid-set and the band seemed to peak a little early. I had expected these songs to close the show.
There were no absurd, cliched “devil’s horns” hand gestures to be seen. This was a crowd of serious and eclectic music fans and they were treated to an incredible double bill and easily one of the best shows of the year, but still somehow John Semley trashed them in his NOW Magazine review saying “Uncle Acid’s not much more than a shticky merch-rock band”, whatever that is. Yes, the merch table was packed all night and good for them. We wish them all the success in the world and look forward to seeing them next time they roll through town, likely at a much bigger venue. We will always be grateful we had the chance to catch them in the cozy confines of Lee’s Palace.
T-Mak World: Toronto’s Site For Music, Movies and Culture
