Deathfix - Sunwolf -- Black Cat - Dec 14 2011

Sunwolf - The world does not have enough bands with the word wolf in them and we have a local version this time. And there name is more distinctive than the confusing Eyes, Mother, and Parade variants of years past. This is a power trio and they do deliver considerable power. It's noisy rock with lots of volume and enthusiastic playing. The second song started with a riff like Husker Du's "Girl Who Lived on Heaven Hill" before settling into a more dirge-like sludge slinger ala Crazy Horse. They reminded me of Honor Role, an old and interesting band from Richmond, in the way they kept a lot of noise going between songs and had a nice intensity to it. There was a bit more art in Honor Role and more power here. There was a distinct garage feel as the set wore on and the enjoyability factor kept moving up and up. The 35 minute set moved me from thinking this a good, but nothing fancy band to a fun powerhouse that I want to see again. Noisy rock lovers should join me.

Deathfix - Some big names in the DC scene are behind, or rather, out front for this new band. Brendan Canty, Fugazi's drummer comes downstage with guitar and vocals this time around. Rich Morel, who works a lot with Bob Mould, is on hand with keyboards and vocals in tow. Filling in on bass and drums were Mark Cisneros and Devin Ocampo of the very fine band Medications. So, a nice little crowd came out to the backroom tonight, which is no surprise. After a couple of songs, I was trying to figure out how I was going to say that these so-so pop-rock numbers were nice but did not do a lot. The third cut then went into a Sebadoh meets Magazine styled long jam that really brought them up several notches. Morel's deeper Devoto styled vocals added a nice mystique. After that, they won me over easily with a strong set of long cuts that had great psychedelic moments along with lots of great post punk hooks like a certain band mentioned earlier. They have plenty of material that worked in this 45 minute set and have a style that although similar to plenty of other bands, has enough interesting keyboard sounds and propulsive rhythms to sound quite refreshing. They looked like they were having fun (Canty especially) so I hope they stick around and grow this thing a bit.

Quote of the Night: I completely thought I misheard the opening band say... "You guys are far away. Danny said it's like an aardvark. Is that why?" But then the aardvark vs. anteater discussion came up later, so I am now intrigued at what I really missed. And apparently I will have to space out my mind a bit more if I plan to come up with a good non sequitur.