Herbcraft at Saint Vitus

Here is a short photo set of a band which played a short set. Or at least I think they did. Herbcraft's songs flowed so cleanly into one another that I can't even say how many they played. Three? Four?

Herbcraft are a two-piece from Maine who have been around for a couple of years so they've had the time to fine-tune their sound. Their music is mesmerizing, with layers of intriguing rhythms supporting ephemeral vocals and vaguely Eastern guitarwork. Unfortunately this sort of music is not conductive to keeping track of things like song counts or time. Especially when it is done so well.

On a side note the Saint Vitus calendar originally listed the show opener as "Herb Craft". So did this site's calendar because I got the listing from Saint Vitus's website. When I finally got around to checking the band out on Facebook things got interesting. Apparently one Mr. "Herbert Craft" is retired and lives in South Carolina. He probably does not play in a psych-rock band. A second "Herb Crafts" claims to be a shoe designer for Vans (wrong venue!) The third and last Herb Craft has no profile picture and no public info. He (?) is a Facebook ghost.

Posted: 1/1/2013 at 12:12pm     Tags: blue  Herbcraft  New Year's Eve  Saint Vitus 

Gary War at Saint Vitus

I promise never to take photos when they "turn down the lights" at Saint Vitus again. Way too dark. Anyway, I heard someone say that Gary War sounded like Devo. Odd considering the locale but not completely wrong. More like Killing Joke, really. Dark but not particularly hard rock with a bit of electronic sound. This particular performance included a drunken pseudo-rapper who I will call Mr. Crack for reasons which have nothing to do with drugs (don't worry, the photos are safe).

Posted: 10/22/2011 at 8:24pm     Tags: approaching total darkness  Gary War  red  Saint Vitus 

The Men at Saint Vitus

I definitely do not think these photos capture the intensity of the sonic pounding The Men delivered to crowd this night. Yes they are pretty intense (and yes they really are called The Men). I did overhear someone in the audience apologize to their friend for the lack of moshpit action, and sure enough there was very little of that. Could it be that the crowd was expecting even more from these guys?

Posted: 9/19/2011 at 7:42pm     Tags: Saint Vitus  The Men