Goblin Cock @ The Urban Lounge

Goblin Cock

02.21.09

The Urban Lounge

with These Arms Are Snakes and Darker My Love

I have been hungering for some Cock for a while. And I’ve been lusting after some Snakes, as well. I’ve also been passionately awaiting some Dark Love. All my metaphoric~interracial~quasi~homosexual needs were fulfilled last Saturday at the Urban Lounge when Darker My Love and These Arms are Snakes kicked off their U.S. tour alongside Warship and Goblin Cock (also on tour together).

Proppers must go to all the bands I saw for some of the more entertaining sets that I have witnessed at the Urban Lounge all year. As is the case with these 4 set long bands I can’t judge when the damn bands play and ended up missing a bit. Sorry Warship and Co. Next time, my friends.

Darker My Love did a fantastically spaced out job proving to the newbs their stunning grasp on the “fuzz rock” genre with songs off their latest disc, 2 and their previous albums. It was as great of a show as the last time I saw them at Urban.

Watching their faces as they go to otherworldly, Morissonian deserts while jamming is bliss. This band may seem a tad out of place on the Dangerbird roster, and this bill also, but booking at Urban consistently allows for new styles to mesh with different audiences. And Darker My Love is good enough for any bill or label, anytime. Dangerbird is lucky to have them. They’re also very enjoyable while blitzkrieged.

By far the most effusive band of the night was These Arms Are Snakes. I’ll be jiggered, they were swell. I have never seen a lead vocalist (Steve Snere) hang upside down from the rafters at Urban, or drop from them and straddle his guitarist’s shoulders, nor may I ever again. Once in a lifetime showmanship perhaps.

That shit doesn’t come cheap, throw in some crowdsurfing and unhindered gyrating and you have one sweaty motherfuck. I saw it. Think post-marathon sweaty. These Arms capture some intense lightning in a crack mason jar with solid rocker chops and effects on lead vocals that are really interesting. Not revolutionary shit, but done so well it doesn’t have to be. A common theme for the night in that I was ba~lown away. Speaking of ba~lowing…

Goblin Cock filled all the wayward and deviant rock fantasies I didn’t even know I had when they entered stage right in full spook~alley black~hooded robes. The “neat~o factor” did not end there either. My vantage point behind the stage let me see their vocalist/keyboardist/effects~man Loki Sinjuggler trigger some strobed fog machines and the mayhem commence.

I had never seen this group and was very glad they were added to the bill. The diehards that made it through all the bands (’til around 1:45 in the AM) saw Goblin Cock finish with great flair leaving a mess all over our faces––a mess of grins. I’d say the only way they could have improved the performance is if they had a Stonehenge model drop from the sky and have a little person dance about it. Maybe next time.

Damn this was a great fucking bill. That says a lot coming from a guy that left his sickbed (literally) to come to the show. And I can’t wait to see all of these bands again. I rarely say that because I get burned out every once in a while from the same old same old. Such was not the case Saturday.

Even suffering from a bad bug Goblin Cock and These Arms had me on my feet to get a better grip on the action~something I wasn’t expecting at all, but was very grateful for. I now believe in the old adage my grandma used to say: that hard rock is the best medicine. So rock on my hard rock brethren, rock on.

And thanks for giving us something to get out of bed for in the evening.