Black Lips Grace the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern

Checking out the Black Lips makes for easy blogging, just document the antics and the review writes itself. So it's Sunday night and The Horseshoe is sold out. Vice magazine has been pushing the bands' onstage reputation for destruction and the crowd is anxious to get rowdy.

I had nearly dismissed them after listening to what I had downloaded; the music is basic and relies on bad amps, reverb and static. Being sure not to miss anything, I realized that the people in the pit, who in all likeliness spent the afternoon drinking and kicking down sandwich boards, were doing all the hard work.

The band didn't have to do much more than play sloppy rockabilly in a cool and careless fashion, while the ceiling fan was nearly pulled down by stage divers, beer and water were sprayed liberally and cans were merrily tossed onstage (but no glass by request, as the band explained they haven't got travel insurance)

Nearly every track from the hour-long set was recognizable from either Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo (live in Tijuana) or their newly-pressed Good Bad Not Evil, both released on Vice Records.

The critical detail is their presence and it seems that while not every night can live in infamy, they are going to keep throwing down for this tour at least. I give the show three guys trying to drink pitchers while moshing (out of 5).

Photo Courtesy of noisephotography.com