The Globe, Cardiff
Thurs 15 Dec
Kevin Starrs, the tall, long-haired, Englishman behind Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, craves mystery. “It’s good for people’s imaginations to come up with their own ideas about things,” he’s previously stated, when it was put to him that he has cultivated a deliberately obscure persona. Such enigmatic guises are difficult to maintain when enjoying the kind of success that Starrs’ band are currently experiencing, with Lee Dorrian’s Rise Above label helping them to reach a global audience, but their mysterious presence remains apparently untainted by the exposure.
Uncle Acid’s most recent album, 2015’s The Night Creeper, is a gloriously diabolic experience – awash with creepy, jagged riffs and dimly lit vocals, overlaid with soft harmonies which combine to create a ghoulish atmosphere. Through the gloom, guitar solos erupt like fireworks, illuminating songs like Pusherman, while 60s pop melodies rise above the doom-laden riffs. Further colour comes courtesy of Starr’s lyrics, which tell a loosely linked tale of a “shadow in blue and indigo dreams, hoping to take you away” – the titular Night Creeper. Starrs has previously described this underlying narrative as a “trashy pulp” story, but this does little to diminish the nightmarish imagery which it brings to mind.
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Former tour mates Black Sabbath are very clearly a huge influence on the album, as much for the bleak lyrical content that ran through the legendary Brummies’ songs as for the inspirational guitar work of Tony Iommi, whose fingerprints are all over The Night Creeper. Recorded using vintage gear, The Night Creeper (along with earlier records Volume 1, Blood Lust and Mind Control) feels anachronistic, out of place in an age of Spotify, wireless headphones and Autotune; the crusty old guy at the party, whose stained leather jacket stinks of weed but who has all the best stories.
Those heading to the Globe can expect to see a band at the peak of their powers, well-oiled after months of touring in support of The Night Creeper, with long strings of dates across the US and Europe behind them, so a great night’s entertainment is in prospect. Walk home along well lit streets, though. “There’s a man in the darkness waiting for blood…”
Tickets: £14. Info: 07590 471888
words HUGH RUSSELL