Show Report: Dopethrone/Kadabra/Chrch @ Alex's Bar, 2/8/2025 (#8) & Dopethrone (2)/Chrch (2) @ Permanent Records Roadhouse, 2/9/2025 (#9)
Let the record show I went to Chrch twice
Welcome to the first back-to-back of the year. Similar to how people will rewatch a movie whenever they channel surf to it, I like following a tour around various stops. Not only does it calibrate what is/isn't a good show, but you can pick up on the little things, the marginalia that's the byproduct of playing tons of shows in a row. Is the setlist static? Is the crowd banter repetitive? How much rope do the musicians allow themselves when improvising? You obviously can't get all of that from one viewing. So, the back-to-back gives you some insight into how the show comes together, along with a better understanding of the intra-tour in-jokes. Once you're two or three shows in, you might as well be the laziest roadie at that point. So, more than hearing the music again, although hearing some bands again is great, that's why I come back. There's the allure of feeling like an insider, a show vet, which is intoxicating to people who don't have many friends.
So, friends, the draw for this back-to-back was Chrch, the Sacramento1 doomers that released a banger of sludgester in 2015 titled Unanswered Hymns under its original moniker, Church. What did that riff-rich album get them? A cease and desist letter from The Church that caused the quintet to suck out the vowel in its name. (The repress of Unanswered Hymns features a redacted version of the letter.) More like Under the Milky Stop Using Our Name. Based on everyone’s haircuts on Heyday, you’d think The Church would be infinitely chiller about such things. Sucks!
Needless to say, Chrch doesn't suck. The crowds I saw them with, though, did suck. I really don't know what compels people to yap while a band is playing, especially a band that utilizes a quiet/loud dynamic. Are people just that uncomfortable with silence? Do they need to hear the sound of their own voice to feel safe? Can a yapper explain this to me in a way that won't make me hate them? If you can't do it in under two sentences, stop yapping.
Anyway, at Alex's Bar, Chrch opened its set by using the big-ass drum it lugged to the stage. It was kind of like Chekhov's big-ass drum: you knew it was going to come into play at some point, and Chrch wasted no time getting down to it, pounding out some near-industrial rhythms. From there, Chrch did its droney doom thing, albeit on the lighter side, delivering a set that was more ethereal, featuring much more of Eva Rose's singing. The set at Permanent Records Roadhouse flipped the setlist and was heavier and naturally sounded better given the venue. This time, Chrch closed with the big-ass drum; hey, if you’re going to bring a big-ass drum on tour, you’re going to use the big-ass drum. I also appreciated that, after playing one song, guitarist Chris Lemos said, "We've got one more." Yo, those songs are long.
Kadabra was a weird fit for this bill, adding some stoner rawk with the emphasis on rawk between the bread of two much heavier bands. The trio puts on a good show, using the entirety of the stage as a playground for enthusiastic headbanging. The drummer also has one of the best drummer faces, looking absolutely thrilled to be there. The euphoria was kind of contagious. I wish I could look that happy doing anything, including being happy. And, I've got to say, the musicianship was excellent. Stoner rock lives and dies by a good rhythm section, and Kadabra has one. Those two are a fleeter four-wheel drive than the typical whump and thump, placing Kadabra nearer something like Akimbo or the sneaky prog of Baroness. (I don't like Baroness, so don't start with me.)
All of that looks great on paper, and maybe Kadabra is good on record, but it just wasn't what I was looking for that night, especially between the funereal crunch of Chrch and the intense stoner stupidity of Dopethrone. I generally like stuff like Truckfighters, too, although I'll admit it has been years since any of that stuff was in the rotation. So, while I was in the gotta-hand-it-to-them zone during Kadabra's performance at Alex's Bar, I skipped its set at a cramped and packed Permanent Records to catch up with some friends. Hearing embarrassing stories about your mates is a pretty good middle card, I have to say, so no real loss.
Your headliner was Dopethrone, the Canadian trio that has an arsenal of stupid riffs. I don't sling that phrase around like a pejorative: I think I'm in a phase of my life when I need to hear stupid riffs. And while Dopethrone doesn't do much for me on record, it works for me live because the band knows exactly what it is. To wit, the trio takes the stage to a country-fried version of its best-known song, "Scum Fuck Blues." It's not quite "Futile Bread Machine," but it works, setting the expectations right, and those expectations are a bunch of greasy, grimy, stupid riffs.
Dopethrone played the same general set on both nights. The difference was the band was more hammered at Permanent Records, which, along with the better sound, gave its tunes more oomph. Plus, singer/guitarist Vincent Houde seemed more jovial, stating, for the record, that his speaking voice sounds like a mix of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead and Rick from Rick and Morty. He's not wrong. The highlight was a "karaoke" version of "Scum Fuck Blues," with the Permanent version again bodying Alex's, as everyone on the tour, including the merch person, took the stage to yell it out. As mosh pit meat crashed together in what might be one of the few shove-fests in a bar slash record store that wasn't on Record Store Day, it felt like a solid release of pent-up aggression after a trying week and month for LA denizens. I don't mosh. So, for me, it was the subtle pleasure of hearing something familiar.
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Thanks for reading.
Check out Wolf's other garbage: https://linktr.ee/wrambatz
Yes, I asked if they could bring fellow Sacramentans Chrome Ghost back down. They said maybe. I'll take it. Should I become a booker? Probably. Will I? Hell no.