THE VELVETEERS | LIVE REVIEW
The Moon, Cardiff, Tue 17 Sept
It’s my first time in The Moon, with its down-and-dirty vibe reminding me of the Square Club from many moons ago, and I’m wondering why most others are wearing earbuds. By the end of The Velveteers’ 13-song set, I can see their wisdom, although the ringing in my ears has felt well worth it, with the Boulder, Colorado band rocking out their own gothic gumbo of QOTSA, Black Sabbath, The Dead Weather and their progenitors, the White Stripes.
Demi Demitro has the perfect name, mane, vocal chords and guitar chops to front the Velveteers, backed by two drummers: her brother John, pounding a white kit, and Adrian Pottersmith taking aim at a mainly black model. Recent release Tale Of The Bad Seed starts proceedings, exhibiting the pure buzzy heavy bop of Eagles Of Death Metal, with Demi’s singing like a more feline Karen O. New Song, which may or not be the title, scales the mystic mountains between Sabbath and Led Zep; Mental Warfare sees John and Adrian beating a double tattoo, bashing their shared cymbal simultaneously, the black and white a yin and yang and Demi saving her guitar strings ‘til midway through the tune. She wrings more fierce swampy riffs from her Eastwood Sidejack Baritone on Anastasia Sings, which came out last year, and is winningly Songs For The Deaf-era QOTSA. In My Head is a ballsy, full-tilt rocker, which downshifts to sludgy stoner rock.
This Rocky Mountain-region band aren’t just about the granite and crags – they can bring some different topography too. Trouble is a T Rex glam blues stomp, with Demi cast as Bolan on lead and some Jimmy Page coming from brother John, downing the sticks to take up some mean slide guitar. A trick he repeats on See Your Face, which takes in the pop grunge of L7 and befuddles the bopping crowd with a false ending. There’s the calm before the storm of Atlantic City, with John on sepulchral FX and blues slide, building to a squall of Adrian hammering the drums, long hair flying and Demi soloing on her knees rather than risk the low ceiling and monitors. I can envisage that one soundtracking Peaky Blinders.
The gloves come off for Motel #27’s rugged riffs and Bloody Little Secrets, before the band slow into the sludge rock of Death Hex as a finale, with its When The Levee Breaks drum intro. Demi extorts with menaces, singing “you can have what you want but it don’t mean nothing baby,” a fist wrapped in a velvet glove.
words CHRIS SEAL