Friday night was a garage rock and punk extravaganza at Baltimore Soundstage, with a solid line-up of support acts for the return of Seattle’s Mudhoney.
Baltimore’s own Murder opened the show, with a loud and sludgy Detroit-esque punk sound that had people dancing right away. Murder was followed by California’s Ritchie White Orchestra, which is largely the creation of Cesar Padilla, who employs a rotating cast of characters as “The Orchestra”. Padilla played the show on crutches, and at the end of their too-short set threw in a cover of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” which found Padilla smearing black make-up under his eyes during the drawn out opening.
Kid Congo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds took the stage next and had the garage-iest sound of the evening. They were a lot of fun, as each song was comedically introduced by singer and guitarist “Kid Congo Powers” (Brian Tristan) formerly of The Gun Club, The Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. “Powers” wears a shaggy grey wig onstage and simultaneously channels the spirits of both John Waters and Ian Svenonius. The sound is filled out with Kiki Solis’ slanky bass, the mean guitar playing of Mark Cisneros and the hard driving beats of Ron Miller. Cesar Padilla guested on tambourine for the entire show. Their sound was classic garage that would have been right at home on a Nuggets compilation. They ended their 12-song set, fittingly, with a trio of covers of The Gun Club and The Cramps.
The crowd was pretty warmed up by the time Mudhoney took the stage. After two false starts of “In ‘n’ Out of Grace” followed by a quick huddle up, the Seattle veterans played a 23-song main set which included classic songs “You Got It”, “Suck You Dry” and debut single a-side “Touch Me I’m Sick”. The set was heavy with new material from 2018’s Digital Garbage and the just released Morning in America EP, both on the Sub Pop label. The majority of the new material is fairly political, perhaps in direct response to the increasingly tense times we are living through. Highlights were “Hey Neanderfuck”, “Kill Yourself Live”, “Vortex of Lies” and a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”.
Following the main set, a 5-song encore followed, which included their debut single b-side “Sweet Young Thing (Ain’t Sweet No More)”, “Here Comes Sickness” from their 1989 full length self-titled album, before wrapping up with a big, big surprise. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden guested on covers of Fang’s “The Money Will Roll Right In”, The Dicks “Hate The Police” and Black Flag’s “Fix Me”.
Enjoy photos of all four bands performing at Baltimore Soundstage on October 18th. All photos copyright and courtesy of Shawn Breen.
