Friday, October 28, 2016

Preview: Murder By Death at the Vogue Theatre, Indianapolis



Murder By Death (photo credit: Greg Whitaker)
The music of Murder By Death has always struck me as best-suited for autumn, especially here in the Midwest. The swings in tone between fluid, ornate melody and thunderous discord evokes an atmosphere of days shortening, nights encroaching to demarcate boundaries deeper into the mornings and earlier into the quickly-dwindling evenings, the oppressive weight of several months of winter on the horizon.

Murder By Death (originally formed in Bloomington) seems to thrive in this atmosphere, marrying the portentous and the cathartic to chilling effect. Mixing gritty folk and orchestral chamber-rock wrapped around murder ballads, gothic lore and plots of scorched earth between some heaven and some worldly purgatory, they are songs of the nature of man, mostly bleak and draped in poignant flourishes.

And what better night for a Murder By Death show than the lone Saturday night between Halloween and Election Day? Few bands can capture such spirit for a week bookended by a celebration of all things ghoulish and the consuming dread of potential end times quite so majestically. Perhaps, the only way the band could top such ripe fodder for a memorable set would be to perform the set at the Stanley Hotel (home of the infamous Overlook Hotel from Kubrick’s The Shining), which Murder by Death has done annually to rabid fanfare for years now.

The band is currently touring in support of the excellent, seventh full-length album, Big Dark Love (Bloodshot Records), a record I’ve lived with for most of the past two years. In recent weeks, I’ve found myself eagerly revisiting the 2012 knockout, Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, and Good Morning, Magpie along with MBD’s deep catalog of darkly tinged arrangements and anthems to prepare for the anticipated Indy date.

Even with a stacked roster of solid bets for a Saturday night in Indianapolis (Band of Horses at Old National Centre and Marshall Crenshaw with the Bottle Rockets at the Hi-Fi come to mind, among others), my money is on Murder By Death at the Vogue. Fellow Louisville-based trio Twin Limb will open the show in support.
Tickets for the show are $18.50 in advance or $21 at the door.
Listen:
"Send Me Home" from Big Dark Love



Video:
"Lost River" from Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon